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THE  MAN  IN  THE  IRON  MASK 


The  Man 
in  the 
Iron  Mask 


BY 

Tighe   Hopkins 

AUTHOR   OF 

"The  Silent  Gate:    A  Voyage  into  Prison," 
"An  Idler  in  Old  France,"  "The  Dungeons  of  Old  Paris, 
"Lady    Bonnie's    Experiment," 
etc. 


ILLUSTRATED 


LONDON 

HURST    AND    BLACKETT,    LIMITED 

13   GREAT   MARLBOROUGH   STREET 
1901 

All  rights  reserved 


PROLOGUE. 

""  Tell  me,  I  pray  thee,  thy  name,"  cried  Jacob, 
wrestling  with  the  dark  adversary  at  Peniel.  So 
have  successive  generations  of  writers  striven  with 
that  plaguy  ghost  of  history,  the  Man  in  the 
Iron  Mask,  and  have  vainly  entreated  his  name. 
But  it  has  at  last  been  spoken.  The  mask  has 
dropped  from  him,  behind  which  he  lurked,  it  seemed, 
impregnably. 

The  solution  of  this  diplomatic  mystery  of  two 
centuries,  the  u  ultimate  dim  Thule "  of  so  many 
speculations,  brings  forward  no  new  appellant.  It 
disposes  finally  of  a  host  of  pretenders  (whose  claims, 
however,  were  for  the  most  part  quite  abandoned  in 
the  nineteenth  century),  but  it  seeks  the  tragic  honours 
of  the  mask  for  no  fresh  candidate.  This  may  be 
a  disappointment  to  some,  for  what  is  most  fabulous 
in  this  history  has  at  least  been  richest  in  dramatic 
surprises  ;  but  to  others,  and  especially  to  those 
who  have  followed  the  progress  of  research  in 
France,  and  who  are  not  unacquainted  with  the 
earliest  true  surmises  on  the  subject,  it  will  be 
rather  gratifying  to  discover  in  the  victim  of  Louis 
XIV.'s  vengeance  that  Mattioli  who  was  first  put 
forward  a  hundred  and  thirty  years  ago — whose 
pretensions   to   the   mask   have   been   canvassed,  de- 


viii  PROLOGUE. 

bated,  approved,  assailed,  rejected,  renewed,  and  are 
now  reduced  to  demonstration. 

History  has  allowed  a  long  innings  to  guess- 
work, tradition,  and  invention  in  all  that  has  con- 
cerned the  Man  in  the  Iron  Mask.  But  the  truth 
is  that  she  has  been  ready  to  come  into  her  own, 
to  yield  up  the  secret  of  the  Mask,  almost  any 
time  since  the  opening  of  the  century.  The  right 
kind  of  research,  and  the  dogged  patience  which 
nothing  but  Q.  E.  D.  will  satisfy :  so  much  she 
asked  in  payment.  The  unlocking  of  Archives  has 
left  few  problems  of  history  unresolved  ;  and  when, 
after  the  Revolution,  those  curious  documents  were 
disclosed  which  Louis,  his  ministers,  his  ambassadors, 
and  his  gaolers  had  penned  in  full  security,  it  was 
certain  that  the  true  tale  of  the  Masked  Man  must 
some  day  get  the  benefit  of  print.  Louis  XIV. 
had  his  revenge  of  Mattioli.  History  has  had  hers 
of  Louis  XIV.  I  cannot  think  that  the  story  misses 
much  in  human  interest  by  the  elimination  of  the 
large  element  of  fable ;  but  the  fact  remains  that 
to  a  reader  of  old  French  history  it  presents  no 
extraordinary  feature.  The  mask  itself  excepted 
(and  the  unimportant  character  of  that  too  celebrated 
disguise  is  hereafter  shown),  the  fate  of  Mattioli 
was  neither  exceptional  nor  uncommon.  It  accorded, 
if  not  entirely  with  French  jurisprudence,  at  all  events 
with  the  administration  of  French  justice.  It  was 
of  a  piece  with  the  system  under  which  political 
and  other  offenders  always  might  be,  and  usually 
were,  dealt  with :  arbitrary  arrest,  arbitrary  im- 
prisonment, and  arbitrary  punishment,  with  or  with- 


PROLOGUE.  ix 

out  the  form  of  trial  by  a  court,  packed  as  Richelieu 
generally  packed  his,  to  ensure  conviction.  Trial 
and  sentence  were  both  dispensed  with  in  Mattioli's 
case ;  but  in  the  days  of  the  "  bon  plaisir  royal  et 
ministeriel,"  which  were  long  before  and  long  after 
the  days  of  Richelieu,  those  formalities  were  easily 
forgone.  So  lightly  were  subjects  of  all  degrees 
imprisoned  under  the  monarchy,  and  so  readily  for- 
gotten in  prison,  that  when  a  prisoner  died  after 
years  of  captivity,  the  very  Minister  by  whose  order 
he  had  been  confined,  and  who  had  been  informed 
of  his  demise,  would  often  request  to  be  told  the 
reason  of  his  detention.  The  close  of  the  nineteenth 
century  has  shown  us  that  justice  in  France  can 
still  be  a  thing  of  very  small  security  to  a  prisoner 
at  the  bar ;  and  the  epoch  under  consideration  in 
this  volume  begins  in  the  last  quarter  of  the  seven- 
teenth century.  That  a  needy  and  obscure  Italian 
diplomat  and  adventurer,  having  tricked,  flouted,  and 
infuriated  a  sovereign  of  the  temper  of  Louis  XIV., 
should  end  his  days  in  the  Bastille,  is  not  a  matter 
to  excite  even  the  most  trifling  degree  of  wonder. 
Still,  the  documents  to  be  offered  to  the  reader 
present,  with  some  new  lights,  a  remarkable  picture 
of  more  than  one  phase  of  imprisonment  under 
the  old  regime ;  and  in  Saint-Mars  we  have  the 
typical  State  gaoler  of  the  age,  incorruptibly  faithful 
to  his  charge,  inflexible  almost  to  cruelty,  callous 
to  the  sufferings  of  his  prisoners,  and  in  his 
private  aspect  a  miser  growing  richer  and  richer  at 
the  expense  both  of  the  prisoners  and  of  the 
public  treasury. 


x  PROLOGUE. 

The  credit  of  the  identification  of  Mattioli  with 
the  Mask  belongs,  as  one  thinks  it  should  belong,  to 
France.  The  beginnings  of  what  constitute  history 
on  this  subject — history  more  or  less  exact  at  the 
outset — are  set  forth  in  the  Introduction,  and  more 
minutely  in  the  second  part  of  the  volume.  Delort, 
whose  Histoire  de  V Homme  au  Masque  de  Fer  is 
seventy-five  years  old,  was  the  first  to  publish  a 
really  useful  collection  of  documents.  Elsewhere  I 
have  explained  how,  owing  to  the  incompleteness  of 
the  series  he  had  access  to,  his  system  came  to 
grief.  Forty-five  years  later  appeared  Marius  Topin's 
L Homme  au  Masque  de  Fer,  which  is  still  as  a 
whole  the  best  and  most  complete  narrative  extant 
But  even  Topin  left  something  undone  ;  and  his 
proof  is  not  absolute.  His  is  the  merit,  nevertheless, 
of  having  first  spread  the  light  upon  the  whole  field 
of  enquiry  ;  and  he  it  was  who  brought  the  case  for 
Mattioli  triumphantly  to  the  front  again,  when  the 
one  signal  error  of  Delort  and  his  contemporaries 
seemed  to  have  left  it  for  ever  in  uncertainty.  Had 
the  investigation  ceased  with  Topin,  an  impartial  critic 
of  his  work  might  well  have  decided  that  unless  and 
until  this  hypothesis  were  completely  overset,  Mattioli 
should  be  received  as  the  Man  in  the  Iron  Mask. 
The  crowning  proof,  decisive  and  irrefutable,  might  be 
to  seek  ;  but  testimony  and  inference  alike  fastened 
the  mask  upon  Mattioli.  This  hypothesis  has  not 
been  overset.  It  has  been  carried  further,  and  con- 
firmed. The  solution  of  M.  Frantz  Funck-Brentano, 
ratified  by  the  .common  assent  of  scholars  in  France, 
has  satisfied  every  doubt.     Scarcely  glancing  at   the 


PROLOGUE.  xi 

history  of  the  affair,  summarising  all  in  a  few  pages 
of  irresistible  and  translucent  argument,  he  has  laid 
the  great  enigma  bare.* 

There  is  a  Legend  of  the  Iron  Mask,  and  there 
is  a  History  of  the  Iron  Mask.  Of  the  Legend, 
only  a  small  portion  (and  that,  perhaps,  the  most 
ridiculous),  is  known  to  the  generation  of  to-day  : 
with  the  History,  the  detail  of  it,  this  generation  is 
almost  of  necessity  unfamiliar,  since  no  volume  has 
yet  embraced  the  whole.  Legend  and  History  are 
here  brought  together  and  contrasted.  The  best 
and  the  most  foolish  stand  side  by  side  ;  the  incredible 
transmutations  of  the  Legend,  and  the  precise  facts 
of  the  true  and  rather  simple  History.  A  certain 
political  transaction,  not  of  the  highest  importance, 
nor  of  the  most  unusual  kind,  took  place  two  hundred 
years  ago  in  France.  Out  of  this  transaction  has 
arisen  the  most  extraordinary  fable  of  modern  times. 
But  truth  has  done  her  tardy  office  ;  and  the  moral, 
somewhat  worn,  speaks  for  itself. 

*I  refer  to  the  chapter,  "  L'  Homme  au  Masque  de  Fer,"  in 
M.  Funck-Brentano's  Ltgendes  et  Archives  de  la  Bastille,  Paris  : 
Hachette  et  Cie.,  1898.  Second  edition  1899.  Crowned  by  the  French 
Academy.  An  excellent  translation  from  the  pen  of  Mr.  George 
Maidment  has  since  been  published  by  Messrs.  Downey  and  Co. 


CONTENTS 


PROLOGUE. 
Introduction. — The  Sphinx  of  French  History  3 

PART  I.— THE  MAN  IN  THE  MOON. 
CHAPTER   I. 

THE  DEATH  OF  VERMANDOIS. 
Points  worth  Remembering — Sources  of  the  Legend — "A  Con- 
tribution to  the  History  of  Persia  " — A  "  Persian  "  Romance 
of  the  Court  of  Louis  XIV. — Louise  de  la  Valliere — The 
Count  of  Vermandois — The  anonymous  Romance  examined — 
Vermandois  at  the  Siege  of  Courtrai — His  Sickness  and  in- 
contestable Death — Burial  at  Arras — Vermandois  not  the  Man 
in  the  Iron  Mask    .         .         . 27 

CHAPTER   II. 

THE  ELDER  BROTHER  AND  THE  TWIN. 
Branches  of  this  System — Developments  under  the  First  Empire 
—Baron  de  Gleichen — Louis  XIV.  "a  mere  bastard" — A 
Discovery  missed  by  Dumas — Voltaire  and  the  Elder  Brother 
— This  Version  perishes  with  the  Revolution — Queen  and 
Cardinal — Absurdities  of  Voltaire's  Story — Soulavie  and  the 
Twin — Soulavie's  Supporters — Choice  of  Dates       ...       48 

CHAPTER   III. 

THE  INFATUATION  OF  BUCKINGHAM. 
Buckingham  at  the  Court  of  Louis  XIII. — Paris  amazed  at  his 
Prodigality — A  Retinue  of  six  or  seven  hundred  Persons — 
Buckingham  falls  in  love  with  Anne  of  Austria — Anne  never 
alone  with  him — Amiens — Buckingham's  declaration — Amiens 
again — The  Scene  in  the  Queen's  chamber — Anne  sees  Buck- 
ingham for  the  last  time — Marie  de  Medici's  statement  to 
Louis  XIII. — Not  a  vestige  of  Proof        .         .         .         .         .       71 

CHAPTER   IV. 

THE  ACQUITTAL  OF  THE  QUEEN. 
Early  days  of  Anne  of  Austria  and  Louis  XIII. — The  Girl's  en- 
thusiasm and  the  Boy's  indifference— The  Marriage — "almost 
a  question  of  State  " — Richelieu  and  the  young  Queen — Illness 
of  Louis  XIII.  in  1630 — Reconciliation — Birth  of  Louis  XIV. 
— Ceremony  and  precautions  at  the  birth  of  a  Child  of  France 
— What  of  the  Twin  ? — Soulavie's  story  examined  in  Detail — 
Louvois's  visit  to  the  Mask  disproved — The  Silver  Dish  and 
the  Linen  Shirt — History  repeats  that  "the  Iron  Mask  was 
not  a  son  of  Anne  of  Austria  "        .         .         .         .         .         .86 


CONTENTS.  xiii 

CHAPTER    V. 

THE  EXPIATION  OF  MONMOUTH. 
Character  of  Monmouth — His  conduct  at  Sedgemoor — In  the 
presence  of  James  II. — The  System  which  makes  Monmouth 
the  Man  in  the  Iron  Mask— Extraordinary  character  of  Saint- 
Foix's  "proofs" — From  the  Cafe  Procope  to  the  boudoir 
of  the  Duchess  of  Portsmouth — Execution  and  Burial  of 
Monmouth     .         .         . 114 

CHAPTER   VI. 

"the  king  of  the  markets." 

The  systcme  Beaufort  is  the  especial  snare  of  age — Lenglet- 
Dufresnoy,  Lagrange -Chancel,  and  Anquetil — Beaufort  and 
Monmouth — Beaufort  a  Lumpkin  at  Court  but  a  Leader  in 
the  Field — The  market  people  dub  him  their  King — Beau- 
fort appointed  Admiral — His  change  of  front — Lenglet-Dufres- 
noy's  theory — The  siege  of  Candia — Panic  and  rout  of  the 
French — Beaufort  missing — The  Dates — Was  the  Man  in  the 
Mask  a  Nonogenarian  ? 139 

CHAPTER   VII. 

THE    TRAGEDY    OF    NICOLAS    FOUQUET. 
Bibliophile  Jacob  makes  Fouquet  the  Masked  Man — An  earlier 

XXX 

conjecture— "64, 389,oooKe^adiou"— The  author  of  this  jest 

unknown — The  fable  revived  by  Lacroix — Louis  XIV.  re- 
solves upon  the  overthrow  of  Fouquet — His  arrest  at  Nantes 
in  1 66 1 — A  special  Court  formed  to  try  him — A  "  Seventeenth 
Century  Warren  Hastings  affair" — The  Judges  in  favour  of 
banishment — Louis's  decree  of  perpetual  imprisonment — Sup- 
position on  which  Lacroix's  hypothesis  rests — Fouquet  in  the 
dungeon  of  Pignerol — Gradual  improvement  in  his  lot — His 
wife  and  family  allowed  to  visit  and  stay  with  him — Fouquet's' 
death  of  apoplexy,  March  23rd,  1680 — Impossibility  of  agree- 
ing with  Lacroix — Theories  of  Ravaisson,  Loiseleur,  and  lung 
— "Oblivion  has  looked  upon  them  all  "        .         .         .         .158 

PART  II.— THE  MAN  IN  THE  MASK. 
CHAPTER  I. 

THE  INTRIGUE  FOR  CASALE. 
Italian  policy  of  Richelieu— Gradually  abandoned  by  Louis 
XIV.— The  "  Military  diplomacy "  of  Louvois— Character 
and  situation  of  Charles  IV. ,  Duke  of  Mantua— Casale— Louis 
covets  this  Stronghold  —  Intrigue  begun  in  1676  —  Abbe 
d'Estrades— Ercole  Antonio  Mattioli— D'Estrades  employs 
Giuliani  to  sound  Mattioli 181 


xiv  CONTENTS. 


CHAPTER    II. 

THE  RIPENING  PLOT. 
The  Situation — D'Estrades  to  Louis  XIV. — Mattioli  selected  to 
conduct  the  affair — He  wins  the  Duke  of  Mantua's  consent  to 
the  sale  of  Casale — The  Duke  ambitious  of  a  military  com- 
mand under  Louis — Mattioli  to  Louis — Louis  to  Mattioli — 
Louis  to  send  an  army  into  Italy — 100,000  crowns  to  be  paid 
for  Casale  —  Louis's  conditions  —  Everything  agreed  to — 
Charles  in  a  hurry  to  conclude  the  affair — Midnight  conference 
between  Charles  and  d'Estrades — Mattioli  to  go  to  Paris  .      192 

CHAPTER   III. 

THE  TREASON  OF  COUNT  MATTIOLI. 
Delays  are  now  upon  the  French  side — Mattioli 's  journey  post- 
poned— D'Estrades  precedes  him  to  France — Mattioli  ill — 
Off  at  last — The  Treaty — Mattioli  has  audience  of  Louis — 
Preparations  on  the  Frontier — Louis  to  Charles  of  Mantua — 
The  French  impatient  while  the  Italians  begin  to  lag — Alarms 
— D'Asfeld  seized  by  the  Governor  of  Milan — Mattioli  sus- 
pected— D'Estrades  to  Mattioli — Mattioli  betrays  the  plot       .     206 

CHAPTER    IV. 

THE  VENGEANCE  OF  "  THE  MOST  GENEROUS  "  KING. 
Details  of  Mattioli's  treason — His  motives  ? — Rage  at  the  Court 
of  France — How  shall  Mattioli  be  dealt  with  ? — Louis 
sanctions  the  proposal  of  d'Estrades — The  King's  Orders — 
The  Abbe's  ruse — The  rendezvous — Mattioli  falls  into  the 
trap — Is  made  prisoner  by  Catinat — Search  for  the  papers — 
The  King  is  avenged — Mattioli  given  out  as  dead — His  family     227 

CHAPTER   V. 

THE  DUNGEON  OF  PIGNEROL. 
Pignerol  in  the  17th  century — Saint-Mars  :  the  gaoler  quintessen- 
tialised — His  manner  of  guarding  his  prisoners — Mattioli 
becomes  the  "  Sieur  Lestang " — Is  to  be  treated  "with 
severity" — Temporarily  insane — The  mad  Jacobin — The  Ring 
— Fifteen  years  in  Pignerol      .......     250 

CHAPTER   VI. 

THE  INQUISITION  OF  JULES  LOISELEUR. 
The  first  attempts  to  prove  that  Mattioli  was  the  Man  in  the 
Mask — Delort — His  omissions — Mattioli's  fellow-prisoners  at 
Pignerol — Saint-Mars  receives  the  command  of  Exiles — The 
question  is,  What  prisoners  went  with  him  ?  Who  was  the 
prisoner  who  died  of  dropsy  ? — Sudden  disappearance  of 
Mattioli's  name  from  the  correspondence  of  Louvois  and 
Saint-Mars — Deductions  of  Loiseleur 270 


CONTENTS. 


CHAPTER   VII. 

THE  MISSING  LINK  REVEALED  BY  TOPIN. 
The  history  of  the  Mask  not  contained  in  any  single  set  of 
documents — Topin  takes  up  the  trail — Reasons  why  Saint- 
Mars  should  have  been  afraid  to  take  Mattioli  to  Casale — 
Was  Mattioli  at  Exiles  or  not  ? — The  Missing  Link — Mattioli 
was  never  at  Exiles — He  re-appears  accordingly  in  the  history.     285 

CHAPTER   VIII. 

THE  PRISONER  OF  CONSEQUENCE. 
The  Isles  of  Sainte-Marguerite — Arrival  there  of  Saint-Mars  in 
1687 — Mattioli  still  in  Pignerol — Saint-Mars  at  his  ease — The 
mandate  of  February  26th,  1694 — Reasons  for  the  transfer  of 
the  three  prisoners  from  Pignerol — Louis  XIV.  falling  on  his 
evil  days — The  mysterious  journey — After  the  death  of 
Fouquet  and  the  release  of  Lauzun,  Mattioli  was  the  only 
"prisoner  of  consequence"  at  Pignerol — New  measures  of 
precaution — Mattioli,   "  your  ancient  prisoner "       .         .         .     296 

CHAPTER   IX. 

THE     SILVER     DISH. 
A  Prisoner  of  State  under  the  Monarchy — Mattioli  and  other 
State  Prisoners — Fable  does  duty  for  History — Origins  of  the 
legends  of  the  Silver  Dish  and  the  Linen  Shirt — The  Guitar — 
Fact  and  fable  in  the  history  of  the  Iron  Mask         .         .         .312 

CHAPTER   X. 

THE  MASK  COMES  TO  THE  BASTILLE. 
Saint-Mars  is  transferred  from  Sainte-Marguerite  to  the  Bastille 
— He  is  to  bring  with  him  his  "ancient  prisoner" — From  the 
Isles  to  Paris— The  halt  at  Palteau — Letter  of  the  grand- 
nephew  of  Saint-Mars — The  entry  in  Du  Junca's  Journal — 
The  Mask  is  a  mystery,  and  remains  a  mystery,  to  the  staff  of 
the  Bastille — But  in  the  course  of  time  his  importance  ceases 
— He  is  displaced  in  the  Bastille  by  a  fortune  teller — Effect  of 
this  upon  the  Legend — Origin  of  the  story  of  the  whitewashed 
cell — Death  and  burial  of  the  Mask — His  name  ;  his  age — 
"Marchioly,"  "  Marthioli,"  Mattioli 323 

CHAPTER   XL 

Q.    E.    D. 
The  mask  itself  unimportant  in  the  History — But  the  mask  gives 
rise  to  the  Legend— Mattioli  the  Man  in   the   Mask  ? — The 
proof  set  out — The  Five  Prisoners — Louis  XV.  and  Louis  XVI. 
— Madame  Campan — Charles  of  Mantua  in  Paris    .          .         .     350 


ILLUSTRATIONS. 


Buckingham,  and  his 


The  Man  in  the  Iron  Mask,  according  to  the  Popular 

Legend Frontispiece 

Louis  XIV.  at  the  Age  of  Twenty-eight 

Louis,  Comte  de  Vermandois    . 

Louise  de  la  Valliere,  as  a  Carmelite  Nun 

Voltaire    .... 

Anne  of  Austria 

George  Villiers,  first  Duke  of 
Assassination     . 

Anne  of  Austria  and  her  Sons 

Louis  XIII. 

Cardinal  Richelieu    . 

Cardinal  Mazarin 

Charles  II. 

The  Duke  of  Monmouth  . 

James  II. 

The  Execution  of  Monmouth  on  Tower  Hill 

Francis  de  Vendome 

Nicolas  Fouquet 

Louis  XIV.       . 

Plan  of  the  Town  and  Citadel  at  Pignerol  to  face  page 

Plan  of  the  Dungeon  of  the  Citadel  at  Pignerol 

to  face  page 

Louvois 231 

Plan  of  the  Chateau  of  Exiles   .         .         to  face  page     250 

Panorama  of  Pignerol  (Pinerolo)  at  the  present  day  . 

Plan  of  the  Fort  of  Sainte-Marguerite         to  face  page 

The  Fort  and  Chateau  of  Exiles  in  1681    . 

A  Corner  of  the  Fort  of  Exiles  .... 

Isle  and  Portress  of  Sainte-Marguerite  at  the  present 
day 

Bird's-eye  View  of  the  Bastille,  16th  and  17th  centuries 

Entry  in  the  Register  of  the  Bastille  .... 

Entry  in  the  Register  of  Saint  Paul's 

Burial  Certificate  of  the  Masked  Prisoner  . 


31 
37 

44 

53 
62 

75 
81 

89 

100 

107 

117 

123 

129 

J35 
147 
166 

185 
216 

228 


259 
264 
279 

287 


293 
325 
333 
345 
359 


The  f^an  in  the  Iron,  fy^ask 


INTRODUCTION. 


INTRODUCTION. 

An  arrival  at  the  Bastille,  September, 

1698,    has   been    the  cause   of  more 

French      discussion    than    any    other  event    in 

the  notable    history  of   that   fortress. 

It    was    Thursday,     18th    of    the    month,    and 

three    of    the    afternoon.       Armed    men    on 

horseback    surrounded    a    closed    litter,    from 

which,  when  all  was  sure,  descended  a  meagre, 

silent  figure,    Saint-Mars,   Louis  XIV.'s  most 

trusted  gaoler.      He  had  come  to  the  Bastille 

for   the   first    time,    having    just    received    its 

command.       The    entry    of    a    new    governor 

would    naturally    be  of  no    small    moment    to 

the  staff,  whose  future  lay  between  his  hands  ; 

but  curiosity  was  immediately  transferred  from 

Saint-Mars   to   the  prisoner  who  accompanied 

1* 


4  THE  MAN  IN  THE  IRON  MASK. 

him.  The  prisoner's  face  was  hidden  by  a 
mask  of  black  velvet,  a  disguise  in  which  no 
one  had  ever  before  been  brought  to  the 
Bastille.  The  unhappy  man  was  already  a 
mystery,  before  even  he  had  set  foot  within 
the  prison  which  was  to  be  the  third  and 
last  of  his  long  captivity.  No  one  knew 
him,  who  he  was  or  what  he  had  done 
that  Saint-Mars  should  have  him  in  this  ex- 
traordinary keeping.  Together,  Gaoler  and 
Mask,  they  had  traversed  France  from  far 
Provence,  travelling  always  in  this  secure 
fashion,  by  silent  ways.  At  the  chateau 
and  domain  of  Palteau,  a  property  of  Saint- 
Mars,  a  halt  had  been  made  ;  and  the 
peasants  of  the  estate  who  came  out  to  meet 
their  lord  preserved  and  passed  on  as  a 
tradition  the  memory  of  that  strange  visit. 
The  mask,  once  seen,  seems  to  have  haunted 
the  dullest  fancy.  In  itself  it  was  no  way 
remarkable  ;  a  little  black  velvet   mask  :    what 


THE   SPHINX   OF  FRENCH  HISTORY.        5 

affected  the  mind  was  the  circumstance  that 
the  person  who  wore  it  was  a  prisoner. 
This  was  something  entirely  unwonted. 
The  peasants  observed  that  when  the  table 
was  served  the  prisoner  was  always  kept  with 
his  back  to  the  window,  they  noted  the  pistols 
at  the  hand  of  the  vigilant  Saint-Mars,  and 
the  two  beds  ranged  together  in  the  sleeping- 
room. 

The  officers  of  the  Bastille  had  been 
apprised,  and  the  King's  lieutenant,  Du  Junca, 
whose  careful  diary  will  be  opened,  had 
prepared  for  the  prisoner  "  the  third  room  of 
the  Bertaudiere  tower." 

Five  years  later,  after  one  day's  illness, 
November  19,  1703,  this  prisoner  died  in  the 
Bastille.  His  end  was  so  rapid  that  he  did 
not  receive  the  solace  of  the  sacrament  ;  the 
chaplain  "  exhorted  him  a  moment  before  he 
died."  As  dusk  fell  on  the  next  afternoon  the 
drawbridge   was  lowered,  and  a  sorry    funeral 


6  THE  MAN  IN  THE  IRON  MASK. 

passed  out,  which  took  its  way  to  the  graveyard 
of  the  church  of  St.  Paul :  behind  a  rude  coffin, 
two  turnkeys  of  the  prison.  A  furtive,  per- 
functory burying,  scarcely  even  decent ;  into 
his  hasty  grave,  probably  by  lantern-light,  the 
turnkeys  unknown  lowered  the  unknown  dead, 
and  that  was  the  end.  On  the  church's 
register  was  inscribed  the  name  of  Marchioly. 
In  the  Bastille  they  had  known  him  as  the 
prisoner  from  Provence. 

This  is  that  mysterious  creature,  the  problem 
of  whose  identity  has  bewitched,  impassioned, 
and  embroiled  six  generations  of  enquirers. 
The  incontestable  facts  are  these:  that  in  1698 
Saint-Mars  conducted  to  the  Bastille  a  prisoner 
who  died  there  five  years  later ;  that  he  was 
known  in  the  Bastille  as  the  prisoner  from 
Provence  ;  that  his  unique,  unhappy  memory 
survived  his  death  in  the  prison,  and  overran 
the  world.  These  are  the  simplest  data  of  the 
problem  that  lies  before  us.     Twenty-four  years 


THE  SPHINX   OF  FRENCH  HISTORY.       7 

(1679 — 1703)  in  the  obscurity  of  prison;  at 
the  end  of  that  period,  an  obscure,  untended 
death-bed,  and  a  hurried  and  obscure  inter- 
ment ;  some  further  years  of  oblivion,  and  then 
there  arises  and  steals  from  that  graveyard 
of  St.  Paul  this  ghost  that  shrouds  its  face, 
intent  upon  an  odd  revenge,  the  torment  and 
insoluble  conundrum  of  historian,  fabulist, 
novelist,  dramatist,  essayist  and  gossip — the 
Sphinx  of  French  history :  the  Man  in  the 
Iron  Mask. 

The  sole  question  to  resolve  is  :  Whose 
was  the  face  which  the  mask  concealed  ? 

The  happy  acumen  of  Topin  instructs  him  at 
once  as  to  the  false  path  on  which  his  predeces- 
sors, with  scarcely  an  exception,  had  set  forth. 
Voltaire  had  said  :  "  What  is  doubly  astonishing 
is  this,  that  when  the  prisoner  in  question  was 
sent  to  the  Isles  of  Sainte- Marguerite,  there 
did  not  disappear  from  Europe  any  personage 
of  note"      The   Mask   had    lain    fifteen    years 


8  THE  MAN  IN  THE  IRON  MASK. 

in  the  dungeon  of  Pignerol  before  they  trans- 
ferred him  to  Sainte-Marguerite,  but  Voltaire, 
than  whom  never  a  writer  has  approached  this 
theme  with  so  complete  a  lack  of  information, 
did  not  take  that  fact  into  account.  The 
statement  just  brought  forward  stimulated 
and  obsessed  all  minds.  Who  of  note  did 
vanish  from  European  scenes  between  the 
date  of  Mazarin's  death  (1661)  and  1703  ? 
That  must  be  the  way  to  seek  the  truth 
about  the  Iron  Mask  !  Thus  was  begun  the 
"  monstrous  brood"  of  all  those  theories  and 
systems  which  have  darkened  counsel  on  this 
subject.  In  pieces  of  sundry  sorts,  waiting 
to  be  sifted  and  joined  together ;  in  official 
despatches,  epistles,  reports,  memoranda ;  in 
certain  live  pages  of  the  Bastille's  archives,  the 
true  history  of  the  Masked  Man  was  lying 
all  this  while  unheeded,  unthought  of.  The 
hunt  was  elsewhere — anywhere,  everywhere 
but    where   the   quarry  couched.     They    were 


THE   SPHINX   OF  FRENCH  HISTORY.       9 

all  wanting  to  come  upon  the  track  of  that 
11  person  of  importance "  who  must  have 
been  thrust  out  of  sight  while  Louis  XIV. 
was  on  the  throne !  Was  it  a  brother  of 
Louis  ?  Was  it  Vermandois  ?  Was  it 
Monmouth  ?  Was  it  Beaufort  ?  Was  it 
Fouquet  ?  The  least  resemblance  found  or 
imagined,  the  mask  was  clapped  on,  and  a 
new  discovery  given  to  the  world.  "  Never 
an  Indian  deity,"  says  Paul  de  Saint- Victor, 
"  has  undergone  so  many  metempsychoses, 
so  many  avatars."  To  one  incarnation  of  the 
Mask  succeeds  another  and  another  ;  system 
topples  upon  system  ;  but  the  Sphinx  keeps 
hold  on  the  secret.  During  thirty  years 
(says  Topin)  Voltaire,  Freron,  Saint-Foix, 
Lagrange-Chancel  and  Pere  Griffet  were 
cutting  and  slashing  one  another  most 
brilliantly,  in  a  joust  in  which  each  adversary 
found  it  easier  to  demolish  the  opinions 
opposed    to    him    than    to    maintain    and    win 


io  THE  MAN  IN  THE  IRON  MASK. 

acceptance  for  his  own.  In  Topin's  day 
fifty-two  writers,  sharing  among  them  twenty- 
five  different  hypotheses,  had  essayed  to  look 
behind  the  mask,  and  Vicomte  Maurice 
Boutry  extends  the  list  to  sixty,  not  embracing 
the  legion  of  anonymous  contributors  to 
periodicals  and  dictionaries.*  Would  the 
problem  ever  be  expounded  ?  This  intermin- 
able series  of  defeats — system  and  system 
built  up  in  years  and  shattered  in  an  hour — 
ended  by  producing  one  curious  but  not 
unnatural  result.  Since  no  one  could  identify 
the  Mask,  might  it  not  be  that  the  Mask 
had  never  lived  ?  Here  was  perhaps  some 
prodigious  myth,  and  nothing  more.  Critics 
less  sceptical,  but  despairing  of  the  truth, 
averred    the    question     beyond     human    ken. 

*  In  how  many  works  on  the  Bastille  there  is  mention  of  the  Man 
in  the  Iron  Mask,  I  cannot  pretend  to  say.  The  library  of  the 
British  Museum  contains  40,000  treatises  on  this  famous  dungeon  of 
pre-Revolutionary  Paris.  Thus,  reading  at  the  impossible  rate  of 
one  a  day,  it  would  take  alx>ve  a  hundred  years  to  exhaust  the 
collection. 


THE  SPHINX   OF  FRENCH  HISTORY,      n 

"  The  history  of  the  Iron  Mask,"  says 
Michelet,  "  will  probably  remain  for  all  time 
in  obscurity."  And  Henri  Martin  :  "  History 
is  debarred  from  giving  judgment  on  what 
will  never  pass  beyond  the  confines  of  con- 
jecture." 

But  the  curiosity  of  the  world  has  never 
been  appeased.  Irritated,  checked,  baffled, 
and  a  hundred  times  defeated,  it  has  come 
again  to  the  quest.  The  itch  spread  far  ; 
England,  Germany,  and  Italy  helped  France 
to  confuse  the  issue,  to  draw  the  mask  a  little 
tighter  over  those  inscrutable  features. 

A  secret  well  kept  during  many  years  is 
greatly  liable  to  distortion  when  it  begins  at 
last  to  emerge  from  the  comfortable  dark  of 
legend  and  tradition.  Indeed,  it  may  become 
twenty  or  more  dissimilar  histories  before  it 
has  been  properly  divulged.  At  one  era  and 
another  the  secret  of  the  Iron  Mask  has  been 
five-and-twenty  secrets  at  the  very   least.     In 


12  THE  MAN  IN  THE  IRON  MASK. 

the  lifetime  of  Louis  XIV.  it  was  preserved  with 
a  cunning  and  fastness  scarcely  to  be  believed. 
Was  ever  gaoler  so  mum  as  Saint-Mars  ? 
That  mute,  uneasy  shadow,  perpetually  plagued 
by  fears  for  the  safety  of  his  prisoners,  now 
with  an  eye  at  the  key-hole  and  now  crouched 
among  the  branches  of  a  tree  to  spy  unseen, 
never  in  four-and-twenty  years  gave  up  the 
secret  which  he  held  inviolable  by  order  of 
the  King.  In  the  fifteen  years  the  prisoner 
was  captive  at  Pignerol,  in  the  four  years 
he  lay  at  the  Isles,  in  the  five  that  brought 
his  tragedy  to  a  term  in  the  Bastille,  no  sub- 
ordinate officer  of  either  place  had  learned  so 
much  as  his  name.  From  Du  Junca's  journal 
we  shall  see  presently  that  even  the  King's 
lieutenant  got  it  by  mere  hazard  after  the 
prisoner's  death.  And  the  Court  was  not 
better  informed  than  the  Bastille.  The 
omniscient  Saint-Simon,  the  Greville  of  France, 
had    never   an    inkling   of  the   matter.     That 


THF   SPHINX   OF  FRENCH  HISTORY.      13 

unbridled  gossip,  the  Princess  Palatine,  who 
spent  half  the  day  at  her  desk  inditing  scandal 
to  her  family  and  friends  abroad,  was  com- 
pletely wide  of  the  mark.*  Supposed  at  one 
time  to  rank  among  the  prerogatives  of  the 
crown,  history  has  proved  that  this  was  not 
the  case  with  the  sombre  secret  of  the  mask. 
Madame  Campan  will  show  us  that  it  was 
unknown  to  Louis  XVI.  Napoleon  expressed 
a  lively  regret  at  not  being  able  to  satisfy 
his  curiosity.  Louis-Philippe  discussed  the 
problem  frequently,  but  confessed  his  ignorance 
of  the  solution  ;  and  if  certain  other  sovereigns 
pretended  to  the  knowledge,  the  contradictions 
of  their  statements  sanction  the  inference  that 
they  were  not  more  correctly  instructed. f 

*  "I  have  just  learned,"  writes  Madame  from  Versailles,  October 
22,  171 1,  who  was  the  masked  man  who  died  in  the  Bastille.  His 
wearing  a  mask  was  not  due  to  cruelty.  He  was  an  English  lord  whc 
had  been  mixed  up  in  the  affair  of  the  Duke  of  Berwick  (natural  son 
of  James  II.)  against  King  William.  He  died  there  so  that  the  King 
might  never  know  what  became  of  him." 

t  Topin. 


t4  THE  MAN  IN  THE  IRON  MASK. 

Here,  then,  indeed  was  a  Secret  of  the  State 
consummately  preserved,  not  only  during,  but 
after,  the  lifetime  of  the  monarch  whose  inte- 
rest it  was  to  safeguard  it.  "  See  that  no  one 
knows  what  becomes  of  this  man"  *  Such  was 
the  private  peremptory  order  of  Louis  XIV. 
to  his  minister,  Abbe  d'Estrades  ;  and  he  was 
obeyed.  Clearly,  therefore,  this  would  be  a 
hard  secret  to  come  at,  until  the  sole  right 
method — the  search  for,  and  disentombing 
of,  the  documents — was  chanced  upon. 

But  both  the  writers  on  this  mystery  and 
their  readers,  in  England  as  in  France,  have 
displayed,  for  the  most  part,  a  rather  singular 
perversity.  It  would  be  fastidious,  if  not 
altogether  idle,  at  this  day  to  make  inquest  on 
the  motives  which  led  so  many  authors  of 
erudition,  ingenuity,  and  exceeding  patience  to 
beguile  the  public  with  the  notion  that  they 
had    found    beneath    the    mask    the    features 

*  "  II faudra  que  personne  tie  sfac/ie  ce  que  cet  homme  sera  devenu." 
Louis  XIV.  to  d'Estrades  :  April  28th,  1679. 


THE  SPHINX  OF  FRENCH  HISTORY.      15 

of  Vermandois,  or  Monmouth,  or  Beaufort,  or 
the  Armenian  patriarch  Avedick — nay,  even 
of  Moliere  himself!  Assuredly  the  scandal- 
hunters  were  not  for  nothing  in  this  affair, 
and  no  doubt  some  private  vengeances  were 
served  by  certain  theories  which  offered  not 
the  veriest  semblance  of  reality.*  In  some 
other  instances,  when  mere  malignity  has  not 
motived  the  enquiry,  the  prepossessions  of 
authors  with  fixed  ideas  have  lured  them  far, 
and  left  them,  in  the  end,  the  victims  of 
irreducible  dilemmas.  A  conjecture  is  reared 
into  a  system ;  such  facts  as  favour  it  are 
adopted  as  readily  as  the  facts  in  opposition 
are  rejected.  When  the  list  of  famous  men 
comprised  within  the  historical  period  is  ex- 
hausted,  the  period  is    audaciously  extended ; 

*  Thus,  there  were  those  who  pretended  to  discover  under  the 
mask  a  son  of  the  Duchess  Henrietta  of  Orleans  and  Louis  XIV.  ; 
a  son  of  Henrietta  of  Orleans  and  the  Comte  de  Guiche ;  a  son  of 
Christine  of  Sweden  and  Monaldeschi  ;  a  son  of  Marie-Therese 
(wife  of  Louis  XIV. )  and  the  negro  servitor  whom  she  had  brought 
from  Spain  ;  a  son  of  Cromwell,  etc. 


1 6  THE  MAN  IN  THE  IRON  MASK. 

and  a  complacent  public  has  been  asked  to 
accept  some  effigy  of  an  Iron  Mask  alive  in 
1706,  three  years  after  the  attested  death  of 
the  prisoner  of  Saint-Mars.  Avedick,  the 
Armenian  patriarch,  whose  claims  to  the  mask 
were  advocated  by  the  Chevalier  de  Taules, 
was  not  carried  off  until  1706.  M.  Emile 
Burgaud  fixed  on  General  Vivien  Labbe  de 
Bulonde  ;  but  "  M.  Geoffroy  de  Grandmaison 
published  in  the  Univers  of  January  9,  1895, 
two  receipts  signed  by  General  de  Bulonde, 
one  in  1699,  when  the  Masked  Man  was  in 
rigorous  isolation  in  the  Bastille  ;  the  other 
in  1705,  when  he  had  been  two  years  dead."* 
It  would  seem,  indeed,  that  scarcely  an 
author  has  come  quite  single-minded  to  this 
task.  There  need  be  no  general  implication 
of  bad  faith ;  it  is  sufficient  to  suggest  that 
the  majority  of  these  defenders  of  systems 
not  defensible  were  anxious   first  to  get  their 

#  Funck-Brentano. 


THE  SPHINX   OF  FRENCH  HISTORY.      17 

literary  profit  out  of  a  topic  of  perennial  in- 
terest, and  unwilling  afterwards  to  admit  the 
truth  that  must  undo  them.  It  is  not,  how- 
ever, in  this  way  that  things  are  proved,  this 
is  not  the  way  of  science  ;  and  perhaps  no  sub- 
ject perplexing  to  history  has  remained  longer 
in  doubt  from  the  common  disregard  of  the 
just  historical  method. 

But  the  offence  in  chief,  the  mischief  of 
the  fable  which  has  run  throughout  the  world 
to  the  hurt  of  a  woman  and  a  queen,  should 
be  attached.  It  attaches  immediately  to 
Voltaire.  Here,  indeed,  we  must  conclude, 
was  malice  prepense.  First  he  prepares  his 
audience  by  an  attractive  hint  or  two  ;  retires 
then,  and  watches  the  effect.  Nothing  could 
be  better ;  we  are  all  agog :  as  much  more  of 
this  as  you  please.  So,  without  the  least  em- 
barrassment on  the  author's  part,  the  horrid 
hoax  is  launched,  and  starts  forthwith  upon 
its    travels.       It    was    a    piece   of    quite    un- 


1 8  THE  MAN  IN   THE  IRON  MASK. 

scrupulous  sensationalism,  skilfully  imagined, 
but — as  there  will  be  occasion  to  show — 
elaborated  with  little  art,  and  with  less  than 
no  regard  for  consistency.  None  the  less, 
there  were  in  it  all  the  elements  of  an  abiding 
popularity  ;  it  had  the  romantic  quality,  it  was 
royally  scandalous,  it  disclosed  a  seeming 
State  secret  of  capital  significance,  it  soiled 
the  honour  of  a  queen :  for  a  hundred  and 
fifty  years  it  has  represented  to  the  many  the 
whole  entrancing  truth  of  the  Man  in  the 
Iron  Mask.  But  the  proofs  ?  Ah !  there, 
indeed,  we  are  speedily  confounded.  M.  Vol- 
taire apparently  forgot  that  history,  sooner  or 
later,  would  be  wanting  to  know  what  he 
meant  by  it — this  titillating  fable  of  her 
Majesty's  amours  and  the  semi-royal  child 
resulting  from  them,  who  was  to  end  his  days 
as  the  prisoner  of  the  mask.  On  Voltaire's 
part  not  an  ounce  of  real  proof  was  ever 
offered,    and    the    researches  of   scholars  have 


THE   SPHINX   OF  FRENCH  HISTORY.      19 

clearly  demonstrated  that  none  ever  could 
have  been  offered,  since  none  was  ever  in 
existence.  Of  all  the  systems  of  the  mask 
this  one  is  the  most  denuded  of  testimony. 
The  utmost  rigour  of  investigation  has  failed 
to  shew  that  Anne  of  Austria  had  any  part  in 
the  affair  of  the  Iron  Mask  ;  on  the  other 
hand,  it  has  shewn  conclusively  that  she  had 
none.  At  the  time  it  was  begun  the  queen 
had  been  dead  nearly  twelve  years.  Let  it  be 
added  that  this  baseless  hypothesis  has  "long 
been  abandoned.  ■  The  last  writers  who  ad- 
hered to  it  date  from  the  revolutionary 
period."  * 

But  the  public  partiality  for  Voltaire's  egre- 
gious version  is  perhaps  not  wonderful.  A 
king's  brother  in  the  mask — it  was  really  a 
very   fine  notion !     The  accessories,  too,  were 

*  Funck-Brentano. — In  fiction,  the  system  which  is  an  extension 
of  Voltaire's  has  enjoyed,  of  course,  the  prepotent  championship  of 
Dumas,  in  the  novel  beloved  of  Louis  Stevenson,  The  Vicomte  de 
Bragelonne. 


2o  THE  MAN  IN  THE  IRON  MASK. 

all  so  captivating  to  the  fancy.  If  that  damn- 
ing resemblance  to  Louis  XIV.  existed  (a  pity 
Voltaire  could  not  contrive  to  prove  it ! ),  the 
necessity  for  the  mask  is  patent ;  and  pray  let 
it  be,  not  the  "light  Venetian  mask"  of  velvet 
which  in  reality  it  was,  and  which  was  of  uni- 
versal use  among  the  upper  classes  in  Italy, 
but  the  right  melodramatic  article,  the  "  iron 
mask "  with  the  steel  chinpiece,  a  mediaeval 
instrument  of  torture,  which  could  not  have 
been  borne  for  a  week  ;  and  let  the  poor  High- 
ness wear  this  day  and  night  for  four-and-twenty 
years.*     This  was  something  like  romance! 

Nor  was  this  all.     Who  parts  willingly  with 
the    other    adjuncts    which    time    has   grouped 

*  I  have  never  seen  the  old-fashioned  play  on  the  subject  of  i  the 
Mask,  which,  no  longer  known  to  London,  is  still  faring  up  and  down 
the  country ;  a  version  possibly  of  the  once-admired  piece,  Le  Masque 
de  fer,  by  Fournier  and  Arnould,  first  given  at  the  Paris  Odeon  in 
1 83 1.  But,  cycling  through  Canterbury  in  the  falling  light  of  an 
October  afternoon,  I  observed  the  placid  thoroughfares  of  that  city 
aflame  with  pictures  of  the  drama.  Here  was  the  Man  in  the  Iron 
Mask  with  a  vengeance.  The  mask  itself  as  depicted  on  the  posters 
had  the  appearance  of  a  small  boiler. 


THE  SPHINX   OF  FRENCH  HISTORY.       21 

about  the  indomitable  legend  ? — the  "  bound- 
less deference"  shown  to  the  prisoner,  Saint- 
Mars  never  seating  himself  in  his  presence, 
addressing  him  "  with  bared  head,"  serving 
him  with  his  own  hands  on  silver  plate,  and 
supplying  him  with  "the  most  luxurious 
raiment  his  fancy  could  desire "  ;  the  notable 
tale  of  the  silver  dish  which  the  prisoner 
flings  out  of  window,  after  carving  a  message 
on  it  with  a  knife,  and  which  nearly  costs  his 
life  to  the  fisherman  who  restores  it ;  or  the 
version  of  Pere  Papon,  in  which  a  shirt  of  fine 
linen,  with  a  letter  written  on  the  inside,  takes 
the  place  of  the  dish  :  who  yields  up  willingly 
these  lively  figments,  long  as  they  have  gone 
by  the  board  ? 

It  is  enough  to  recall  the  reception,  cool  in 
some  quarters  and  in  others  hostile,  which  those 
scholars  met  with  who  first  untied  the  knot. 
Few  problems  of  history  have  held  so  many 
vested  interests,  and  no   vested  interests  in  a 


22  THE  MAN  IN  THE  IRON  MASK. 

problem  of  history  have  been  more  tenaciously 
fought  for.  What  innumerable  pens,  French 
and  alien,  were  mortgaged  in  this  affair !  Baron 
Heiss's  affirmation,  the  first  true  note  upon 
the  Mask  in  French,  was  received  "with 
indifference."  * 

Voltaire,  an  old  man  now  and  jealous  high 
priest  of  his  own  inspired  myth,  was  moved  to 
peevishness.  "Why,"  he  cries,  "they  have 
even  given  him  an  Italian  name!"  Heiss's 
epistle  was  merely  in  the  nature  of  a  sugges- 
tion, but  at  last  the  right  word  had  been  uttered. 
The  unravelling  remained  to  do,  however,  and 
for  a  long  time  it  was  a  task  not  less  thankless 
than  laborious  :  the  true  heir  was  no  Prince  of 
the  blood,  and  there  was  no  investing  him  with 
fine  linen  or  feeding  him  on  silver  dishes. 
Voltaire's  pretender,  "young,  and  with  features 
of  rare  nobility  and  beauty"  (though.no  one 
ever  saw  them !)  was  still  the  fairy  hero  of  the 

*Vte.  Maurice  Boutry. 


THE  SPHINX   OF  FRENCH  HISTORY.       23 

multitude.  Came  Topin  finally,  and  the  fairy 
prince  got  his  coup  de  grace.  Not  talent  and 
not  genius  will  ever  again  make  a  Canterbury 
Tale  of  the  Man  in  the  Iron  Mask.  History 
lighted  her  lamp  at  Topin's  hands,  and  was 
avenged.  M.  Funck-Brentano  has  shown  con- 
clusively that  Topin  was  right,  and  has 
furnished  the  proofs  that  were  still  to  seek. 
But  will  the  facts  uproot  the  fable  ?  In 
historical  circles  in  France,  discussion  on  the 
question  of  the  Mask  is  at  an  end,  but,  for 
the  general  public,  there  are,  as  M.  Sardou 
says,  "  The  guides,  the  showmen  to  reckon 
with — those  faithful  guardians  of  legends, 
whose  propaganda  is  more  aggressive  than 
that  of  scholars."*     And  among  ourselves  the 

*  Victorien  Sardou. — Preface  to  Funck-Brentano.  M.  Sardou  adds  : 
"When  you  reflect  that  every  day,  at  the  Isles  of  Sainte-Marguerite, 
the  masked  man's  cell  is  exhibited  to  visitors  by  a  good  woman  who 
retails  all  the  traditional  fables  about  the  luxurious  life  of  the  prisoner, 
his  lace,  his  plate,  and  the  attentions  shown  him  by  Saint-Mars,  you 
will  agree  that  a  struggle  with  this  daily  discourse  would  be  hopeless. 
And  you  would  not  come  off  with  a  whole  skin  !  " — Ibid. 


24  THE  MAN  IN  THE   IRON  MASK. 

Voltaire  tractate  is  still  occasionally  reprinted  ; 
Dumas  is  very  much  alive  ;  and  audiences  at 
country  theatres  are  perennially  regaled  with 
the  spectacle  of  the  suffering  prince,  his 
head  encased  in  an  iron  boiler. 

Meanwhile,  for  those  who  will  read  it,  the 
true  tale  as  revealed  by  history  is  not  bereft 
of  interest  or  romance.  The  treason  of  the 
rash  Italian,  who  flouted  Louis  the  Magnificent 
in  the  face  of  Europe,  and  was  so  terribly 
despoiled  for  the  same,  needed  only  its  Dumas, 
or  our  own  dear  Stevenson,  to  be  borne  to  the 
rim  of  the  universe.  In  any  event,  it  seems 
good  to  speed  the  Man  in  the  Moon,  and  admit 
in  his  place  the  corporeal  Man  in  the  Mask. 


PART   I. 

THE    MAN    IN   THE    MOON. 


27 


CHAPTER    I. 

It  will  be  of  profit  to  remember  : — 

The  Death 

of  i.   That    the    mysterious    prisoner 

Vennandols.    wag    nQ    myth 

2.  That,  while  quite  unknown,  legend  was 
already  busy  with  him  before  his  death. 

3.  That  the  hypotheses  of  the  18th  century 
are  without  the  support  of  history. 

4.  That  since,  from  the  era  of  the  French 
Revolution,  access  to  the  Archives  became 
possible,  these  hypotheses  have  been  one  by 
one  abandoned. 

5.  That  the  expression  "  iron  mask  " — 
"  masque  de  fer  " — does  not  occur  in  any 
official  document  :  it  is  a  "  mask,"  a  "  velvet 
mask,"  or  a  "  black  velvet  mask." 

6.  That  the  tradition  of  a  royal  secret,  passed 
on  from  king  to  king,  is  disproved. 


28  THE  MAN  IN  THE  IRON  MASK. 

7.  That  the  Legend  owes  everything  to  the 
imagination  of  men  of  letters,  that  it  is  en- 
tirely at  variance  with  facts,  and  that  it  has 
held  its  ground  by  reason  mainly  of  the 
prevailing  voice  of  Voltaire,  and  the  enduring 
fascination  of  Dumas. 

We  can  proceed  now  to  determine  the  source 
and  origin  of  the  Legend.  In  1745  there 
appeared  at  Amsterdam,  under  the  auspices  of 
the  Compagnie  des  libr aires  assoctes,  a  small 
romance  entitled  "  A  Contribution  to  the 
History  of  Persia."*  It  was  published  anony- 
mously, and  the  authorship  has  remained  a 
secret.  Several  critics  have  assigned  it  ("  not 
without  some  reason,"  says  M.  Funck-Bretano) 
to  Madame  de  Vieux-Maisons  ;  others  to  the 
Due  de  Nivernais  ;  and  others  again  to  the 
Chevalier  de  Ressegnier,  an  officer  in  the 
Guards,  whom  Madame  de  Pompadour  had 
sent  to  the  Bastille.     General  lung  inclines  to 

*  "  Me" moires  secrets  pour  servir  h  Phistoire  de  Perse." 


THE  DEATH   OF    VERMANDOIS.  29 

Paul  Lacroix's  opinion  that  Voltaire  himself 
was  the  author.  The  identity  of  the  author 
is,  however,  quite  unimportant.  What  is  of 
interest  is,  that  this  slender  novel  was  very- 
soon  the  talk  of  France.  It  said  the  first  public 
word  about  that  hidden  prisoner  of  Saint-Mars 
whose  misfortunes  were  just  beginning  to 
entrain  attention. 

"  Cka-Abas"  *  says  the  anonymous  author, 
"  had  a  legitimate  son,  Sdphi-Mirza,\  and  a 
natural  son,  Giafer.%  The  children  were 
almost  of  an  age,  but  their  characters  agreed 
in  nothing.  Giafer  was  never  tired  of  saying 
that  the  French  were  greatly  to  be  pitied  for 
their  subjection  to  a  monarch  who  had  not 
the  wit  to  rule  them.  These  treasonous 
words  were  carried  to  Cha-Abas,  but  the 
father  was  stronger  in  him  than  the  king, 
and  he  could  not    bring  himself  to  exert  his 

*  Louis  xiv. 

t  Louis  the  Dauphin. 

X  Louis  de  Bourbon,  Comte  de  Vermandois. 


3o  THE  MAN  IN  THE  IRON  MASK. 

authority    over    a    son    who    had    abused    his 
tenderness.      At    last,     Giafer    so    far    forgot 
himself  as    to  strike  Sephi-Mirza  in  the  face. 
This     was    at    once    reported    to    Cha-Abas, 
who,    trembling    for    the    culprit,    and    willing 
even  now  to  overlook  the   offence,  could   not 
but  regard    it   as   an  attempt   against  himself 
and  his  crown  ;    and,  as    the  affair  had    scan- 
dalised the  court,  he  could  no  longer  yield  to 
the  promptings  of  a  father's   love.       He   con- 
strained   himself,    and    summoned    the    most 
intimate    of  his    courtiers   ;    showed    them    his 
grief,    and    demanded    their    voice    upon    the 
matter.      For  a  crime  of  this  magnitude,  they 
declared,    the    laws     of    the     State    awarded 
death.     What   a  verdict  for  the  doting  father  ! 
Then,     one     of    the     ministers,     more     sen- 
sible   than    the     others     of    the    affliction    of 
Cka-Abas,    proffered    a    means    of    punishing 
Giafer     without      putting      him      to      death. 
•'  Let    the    prince,'    said    this     counsellor,    '  be 


*mmmm 


Louis  XIV.  at  the  age  of  Twenty-Eight. 
From  an  engraving  after  Le  Bran. 


THE  DEATH   OF   VERMANDOIS.  33 

sent  to  the  army  which  was  then  on  the 
frontiers  of  Feldran*  Shortly  after  his  arrival 
let  it  be  given  out  that  he  had  sickened  of 
the  plague,  which  would  be  a  sure  way  of 
detaching  from  him  his  friends  and  admirers, 
and,  a  few  days  later,  let  it  be  announced 
that  the  malady  had  carried  him  off.  Then 
whilst,  in  the  presence  of  the  whole  army,  his 
obsequies  should  be  celebrated  in  a  manner 
befitting  his  birth,  he  must  be  borne  away 
by  night,  and  taken  secretly  to  the  citadel 
of  the  Isle  of  Ormus!  f  This  advice  was 
very  generally  approved,  and  above  all  by 
the  afflicted  father.  Persons  faithful  and 
discreet  were  chosen  for  the  conduct  of  the 
affair  ;  and  Giafer,  with  a  splendid  retinue, 
set  forth  for  the  army.  There  it  fell  out 
as  the  plot  had  ordered,  and  while  all  the 
camp  lamented  that  untimely  fate,  the  unhappy 

*  Flanders. 

t  Isles  of  Sainte- Marguerite, 


34         THE  MAN  IN  THE  IRON  MASK. 

prince  was  hurried  by  privy  ways  to  the 
Isle  of  OrmuSy  where  they  delivered  him 
into  the  hands  of  the  governor,  whom  Cha- 
Abas  had  commanded  that  no  one  should 
ever  obtain  sight  of  his  prisoner.  One 
attendant  only,  who  shared  the  secret,  was 
taken  with  the  prince ;  but  this  man  dying 
by  the  way,  the  escort  slashed  his  face  with 
their  poniards  that  he  might  not  be  recog- 
nised, and  left  him  stripped  and  stark  upon 
the  road.  When  Cha-Abas,  to  reward  the 
governor's  fidelity,  bestowed  on  him  the 
command  of  the  citadel  of  Ispahan*  Giafer 
was  removed  there.  At  the  Isle  of  Ormus, 
as  in  the  citadel  of  Ispahan,  he  was  com- 
pelled to  wear  a  mask  when,  by  reason  of 
sickness  or  for  any  other  cause,  it  was 
necessary  to  let  him  be  seen."  f 

Such  was   the   story    which    set    all    minds 

*  The  Bastille. 

t  Mimoires  secrets  pour  servir  h  Vhistoire  de  Perse- 


THE  DEATH  OF   VERMANDOIS.  35 

in    France    to  work  upon   the  enigma  of  the 
prisoner    of   Saint-Mars.      "  No  sooner   had  it 
appeared,"   says   lung,    "  than   the    problem  of 
the  mysterious  prisoner    became  the    question 
of  the  day.      Refutations,  criticisms,  pamphlets, 
letters,     memoirs,     and     ever     new     solutions 
succeeded   one  another    rapidly  from    1750  to 
1790."     The    "  History  of   Persia"  continued 
to    be    credited    even    after    Voltaire's    more 
romantic  nonsense  had  seduced  the  multitude. 
Let    us    examine    its    pretensions.       It    repre- 
sents,   as    Topin    observes,    a   kind    of    com-  * 
promise  between  the  impossibility  of  accepting 
the  imaginary  hero  of  Voltaire  and  the  desire 
to    see    in    the   Masked  Man  some  person   of 
exalted  birth. 

In  Vermandois  we  have  at  all  events  a  live 
man,  and  the  natural  son  of  a  King  to  boot. 
His  mother  was  that  beautiful  and  sympathetic 
Louise  de  la  Valliere  who  touches  us  more 
closely    than    any    other    of    the    heroines    of 

3* 


36  THE  MAN  IN   THE  IRON  MASK. 

the  court  of  Louis  XIV.  Yielding  with  re- 
luctance to  the  passion  of  the  King,  la  Valliere 
was  no  courtesan  and  no  fortune-hunting  ad- 
venturess. Strong  in  her  very  weakness, 
she  subjugated  without  art  or  wile  the  most 
imperious  sovereign  in  Europe,  and  from  the 
torments  of  a  love,  ceaselessly  combated,  she 
passed  to  the  rigors  of  a  penance  courageously 
endured  for  thirty  years.  Sweetest  and  most 
captivating  figure  of  the  great  reign,  she  has 
engaged  the  hearts  of  posterity.* 

The  graces  of  the  mother  were  innate  in 
Louis  de  Bourbon,  Count  of  Vermandois. 
Tall  and  finely  formed,  he  possessed  la  Val- 
liere's  instinctive  gift  of  pleasing.  Kindly  and 
generous,  he  had  his  own  peculiar  ways  of 
conferring  favours,  arid  the  most  fastidious 
of  men,  it  was  said,  could  never  reject  or  be 
offended  by  his  benefits.  From  a  child  he 
had  the  love  of  Louis  XIV.,  who  was  as  proud 

*  Topin. 


JL>i  (  tt  (  otwlra  1/  le  iS.  o    ,     i {*'&'}.  v 

lllillll  illlllll 


Louis,  Comte  de  Vermandois. 
From  an  engraving  after  Mignard. 


THE  DEATH   OE    VERMANDOIS.  39 

as  he  was  tender  of  him.  In  the  army,  he 
won  the  officers  as  completely  as  he  had  won 
the  common  soldiers,  and  his  personal  courage 
was  of  the  highest ;  with  the  troops  in 
Flanders,  on  one  occasion,  he  concealed  a  grave 
malady,  that  he  might  not  miss  his  part  in 
an  attack.  As  if  under  the  influence  of  that 
subtle  warning  which  often  strikes  those  whose 
death  is  to  be  premature,  he  seemed  eager  to 
ensure  for  his  memory  the  renown  of  some 
signal  act  :  but  his  day  was  too  short  for  glory. 
A  posthumous  celebrity  of  a  most  uncommon 
kind  was,  however,  in  store  for  him.  Sixty 
years  after  his  death,  it  occurred — Heaven 
knows  how  ! — to  the  unknown  author  of  these 
Memoires  secrets  pour  servir  a  Fhistoire  de 
Perse  to  add  to  the  too-brief  life  of  the  gra- 
cious Vermandois  twenty  years  of  captivity  in 
prison,  and  to  render  his  destiny  sadder  by 
presenting  him  as  the  incognizable  victim  of 
Louis  XIV.'s  tyranny. 


4o  THE  MAN  IN  THE  IRON  MASK. 

What  proofs,  or  failing  proofs,  what  proba- 
bilities does  the  story  carry  ?  In  the 
seventh  volume  of  Mdlle.  de  Montpensier's 
interminable  "  Memoirs "  there  is  a  definite 
statement  that  Vermandois  was  under  a  cloud 
at  court  when  he  set  out  for  the  siege  of 
Courtrai  ;  that  the  King,  annoyed  about  his 
gallantries  in  the  town,  and  the  company  the 
young  man  kept,  had  banished  him  from  the 
presence.  There  is  no  word  of  a  quarrel 
with  the  Dauphin,  or  of  a  blow  in  the  face, 
a  scandal  which  could  scarcely  have  re- 
mained unknown  to  Mdlle.  de  Montpensier, 
and  one  which,  since  she  was  no  friend  to  the 
brilliant  Vermandois,*  she  would  not  have 
scrupled  to  divulge.  As  for  Vermandois's 
pretended  disgrace,  and  the  King's  refusal  to 
see  him,  we  find  that  on  the  earliest  rumour  of 
his  illness  at  Courtrai,  Louis  sends  word  that 

*  "  I  was  not  sorry  for  the  death  of  M.  de  Vermandois,"  she  says 
in  this  same  volume  of  the  Mdmoires. 


THE  DEATH   OF   VERMANDOIS.  41 

he  is  to  be  brought  back  to  court  as  quickly  as 
possible,  "  where  he  can  be  surrounded  with 
every  care."* 

"  Is  there  need,"  asks  Topin,  "  to  insist 
upon  the  impossibility  of  admitting  that  a  son 
and  heir  of  Louis  XIV.  could  receive  the 
gravest  insult  in  the  midst  of  the  court,  and 
no  allusion  be  made  to  the  fact  by  a  single 
contemporary  writer  ?  "  Further  to  diminish 
the  probability  of  the  tale,  the  author  of  the 
Me'moires  Secrets  shows  us  in  Vermandois,  that 
mirror  of  courteous  chivalry,  an  unmannerly 
and  treasonable  cub,  unable  to  keep  his  hands 
from  the  brother  who  was  one  day  to  be  his 
king.  Finally,  the  brothers  are  described  as 
"  d  pen  pres  du  meme  age"  whereas  there  were 
six  years  between  them  ;  Vermandois  at  the 
period  of  this  display  of  ungovernable  temper 
being  but  sixteen,  while  the  Dauphin  was 
already  the  father  of  the  Due  de  Bourgogne. 

*  The  King  to  the  Marquis  de  Montchevreuil,  Nov.  4,  1683. 


42  THE  MAN  IN  THE  IRON  MASK. 

The  untimely  death  of  Vermandois  is  a  fact 
that  cannot  be  disputed,  nor  is  there  in  his  last 
earthly  moments,  or  in  the  transport  of  his 
remains  to  Arras,  where  they  were  interred, 
a  circumstance  which  provokes  the  faintest 
degree  of  suspicion. 

It  was  on  the  6th  of  November,  1683, 
that  the  young  Count  took  to  his  bed  at 
Courtrai.  He  had  been  sickening  for 
some  days,  but  would  not  admit  it,  so  deter- 
mined was  he  to  take  part  in  the  attack  on 
Menin,  "  where  he  gave  proofs  of  the  highest 
courage." 

His  fever  increased  rapidly  ;  on  the  12th  of 
the  month  Marshal  d'Humieres  communicated 
his  condition  to  the  minister  Louvois  ;  on  the 
13th  word  was  sent  to  the  court.  Three  days 
later,  on  the  16th,  it  is  announced*  that  the 
patient  has  just  received  the  sacrament,   and 

*  Archives  du  ministere  de  la  guerre.      De   Boufflers   a   Louvois, 
Cited  by  Topin. 


Louise  de  la  Valliere,  as  a  Carmelite  Nun. 
From  an  engraving  after  D.  a.  Plaats. 


THE  DEATH  OF   VERMANDOIS.  45 

that  ton  riespere  plies  que  dans  sa  jeunesse. 
On  the  second  day  from  this,  November  18th, 
the  son  of  la  Valliere  died  of  malignant  fever 
in  the  presence  of  Marshal  d'Humieres,  the 
Marquis  de  Montchevreuil,  and  Lieutenant- 
General  Boufflers.  "  In  the  camp,  distress  was 
general.  They  wept  for  the  good  he  had 
achieved,  and  for  the  promises  of  greatness 
unfulfilled."  Mademoiselle  de  la  Valliere  "  is 
all  day  at  the  foot  of  her  crucifix." 

On  the  27th  of  November,  before  an  im- 
mense and  brilliant  crowd  of  witnesses,  Ver- 
mandois  was  laid  with  pomp  in  the  choir  of 
the  cathedral  church  of  Arras.  By  the  King's 
command,  a  requiem  mass  was  said  in  the 
same  place  every  day  during  the  remainder  of 
the  year ;  and  provision  was  ordered  to  be 
made  for  a  solemn  service,  preceded  by  vigils, 
on  the  1 8th  of  November,  each  year,  "a 
perpetuite."  Doles  were  to  be  given  to  the 
poor  of  Arras  on  this   day,   "that  they  might 


46  THE  MAN  IN  THE  IRON  MASK. 

pray  for  the  soul's  welfare  of  the  Comte  de 
Vermandois."  Up  to  the  year  of  the  Re- 
volution, 1789,  all  these  stipulations  of  the  act 
drawn  up  with  the  chapter  of  the  cathedral,  in 
the  name  of  Louis  XIV.,  "  were  scrupulously 
fulfilled." 

To  sum  up.  If  the  amiable  and  chivalrous 
Vermandois  struck  the  Dauphin,  as  the  legend 
of  the  "  Contribution  to  the  History  of  Persia  " 
maintains,  the  proof  has  not  come  down  to 
us.  If  for  this  deed  Louis  XIV.  condemned 
a  favourite  son  to  lifelong  imprisonment,  the 
proof  is  not  less  in  request.  The  dispatches 
concerning  the  successive  phases  of  the  illness 
of  Vermandois,  his  death  at  Courtrai,  his  burial 
in  the  cathedral  of  Arras,  are  in  existence. 
And,  as  regards  Louis  XIV.  (who  held  such 
things  profoundly  sacred),  what  an  awful  and 
most  impious  derision  is  in  that  pomp  of  burial, 
and  in  those  masses  celebrated  during  a 
hundred  years,  if  the  coffin    in  the   choir  were 


THE  DEATH   OF   VERMANDOIS.  4  7 

tenantless,  and  Vermandois  a  living  prisoner  in 
the  dungeon  of  Pignerol ! 

There  is  but  to  add  that  this  version  of  the 
mystery,  adopted  by  Freron  in  1768,  and  by 
the  unknown  author  of  the  Histoire  du  fils  dun 
Roiy  in  1789,  has  lain  for  above  a  century  in 
well-merited  neglect. 


48 


CHAPTER    II. 

The  systeme  Vermandois  was  a  choice 

The 

Ewer  Brother  regale  in  its  way,  but  a  dish  more  de- 
and       lectable  was  preparing.     The  Legend 

the  Twin. 

was  not  to  be  world-famous  till  it 
had  made  of  the  Iron  Mask  a  brother  of 
Louis  XIV.  Of  this  system  there  were 
several  branches.     Thus,  the  Mask  was  : — 

i.     A   son  of  Anne  of  Austria  and    some 
lover  undiscovered. 

2.  A    son   of  Anne    of   Austria    and    the 
Duke  of  Buckingham. 

3.  A  son  of  Anne  of  Austria  and  Cardinal 
Mazarin  ; 

or 

4.  A  twin  brother  of  Louis  XIV. 


ELDER  BROTHER  AND   THE   TWIN.       49 

Later,  under  the  First  Empire,  there  were 
new  and  very  elegant  conceits.  Taking  up 
the  theory  of  the  twin  brother,  the  Baron  de 
Gleichen  had  asserted,  and  had  been  at  pains 
to  prove,  "that  it  was  the  true  heir  to  the 
throne  who  was  put  out  of  sight,  to  the  profit 
of  a  child  of  the  Queen  and  the  Cardinal. 
Having  become  masters  of  the  situation  on 
the  death  of  the  King  [Louis  XIII.],  they 
substituted  their  son  for  the  Dauphin,  the 
substitution  being  facilitated  by  a  strong 
likeness  between  the  children."*  The  dire  con- 
sequences of  this  hypothesis  strike  the  eye 
at  once  :  it  nullifies  in  the  most  absolute 
fashion  the  legitimacy  of  all  the  remaining 
Bourbons. 

After  a  period  of  repose  in  the  shades,  the 
ghost  of  the  Baron  de  Gleichen  awoke  and 
stalked  forth  into  the  First  Empire,  where  all 
the  talents  were  probing  the  dust  of  the  Man 

*  Funck-Brentano. 

4 


5o  THE  MAN  IN  THE  IRON  MASK. 

in  the  Iron  Mask.  Here  is  the  contribution  of 
the  Baron's  ghost  to  the  bewildering  topic  of 
debate.  "  Louis  XIV.  had  been  a  mere  bastard, 
the  child  of  foreigners.  The  lawful  heir  had 
been  imprisoned  at  the  Isles  of  Sainte- 
Marguerite,  where  he  had  married  the  daughter 
of  one  of  his  gaolers.  Of  this  marriage  a  child 
was  born,  who,  as  soon  as  he  was  weaned,  was 
despatched  to  Corsica,  and  there  entrusted  to  a 
safe  person,  as  a  child  coming  of  '  good  stock  ' 
— in  Italian,  Buona-parte.  It  is  from  this  child 
that  the  Emperor  was  directly  descended.  The 
true  claim  of  Napoleon  I.  to  the  throne  of 
France  established  by  the  Iron  Mask ! — How 
came  the  great  Dumas  to  miss  that  great 
discovery  ?  "  * 

Note  has  been  made  of  the  suggestion  that 
Voltaire  was  the  author  of  the  unsigned 
"  Contribution  to  the  History  of  Persia."  He 
affected   to  treat  it   in  public  as  an  "  obscure, 

*  Funck-Brentano. 


ELDER  BROTHER   AND   THE    TWIN.       51 

ridiculous  pamphlet,"  but  he  was  exceedingly 
quick  to  appreciate  the  interest  it  had  aroused. 
Surely  that  tale  of  Vermandois  and  the  Dauphin, 
and  the  fond  King  who  would  not  slay  his  son, 
might  be  improved  upon  !  Now  Voltaire  had, 
as  Matthew  Arnold  says  of  Macaulay,  "his 
own  heightened  and  telling  way  of  putting 
things "  ;  and  of  that  heightened  and  telling 
way  of  his  there  is  no  more  effective  illustration 
than  the  surmise  upon  the  Mask  with  which  he 
witched  the  world.  People  have  gone  on  re- 
peating it — not  as  surmise  but  as  history — even 
to  the  present  day.  In  how  many  minds  does 
not  the  mention  of  the  Man  in  the  Iron  Mask 
conjure  up  the  image  of  a  brother  of  the  Grand 
Monarque  ?  This  story,  nevertheless,  is  un- 
supported by  any  document  that  ever  yet  was 
vouched  for  ;  not  in  all  the  archives  of  France 
is  there  one  single  piece  to  stay  it  on  ;  nor 
will    it    tally    (and    this    were    indispensable) 

with    the    dates    of    the   changing   periods    in 

4# 


52  THE  MAN  IN  THE  IRON  MASK. 

Saint- Mars's  career.  In  a  word,  from  the 
day  that  the  State  papers  of  France  became 
available,  no  seeker  of  the  truth  could 
continue  his  belief  in  the  divination  of 
Voltaire  :  so  far  as  criticism  was  concerned 
it  perished,  accordingly,  in  the  cataclysm  of 
the  Revolution. 

Let  us  see  how  adroitly  Voltaire  went  to 
work.  In  the  first  edition  of  his  "  Age  of 
Louis  XIV.,"  published  in  1751,  he  wrote: — 
"  Some  months  after  the  death  of  Mazarin,  an 
event  happened  which  is  without  a  parallel  in 
history.  Moreover,  and  this  is  not  less  re- 
markable, the  event  has  been  passed  over  in 
silence  by  every  historian.  There  was  sent 
with  the  utmost  secrecy  to  the  castle  of  the  Isles 
of  Sainte-Marguerite,  in  the  Sea  of  Provence, 
a  prisoner  unknown,  of  a  stature  above  the 
average,  young,  and  with  features  of  rare 
nobility  and  beauty.  On  the  way,  the  prisoner 
wore    a    mask,    the    chinpiece    of   which    was 


• 


Voltaire. 
After  De  la  Tour. 


ELDER   BROTHER  AND   THE   TWIN.       55 

furnished  with  springs  of  steel,  so  that  he 
could  eat  without  removing  it.  Order  had 
been  given  to  kill  him  if  he  ventured  to 
uncover.  He  remained  at  the  Isles  until  a 
trusted  officer,  Saint-Mars  by  name,  governor 
of  Pignerol,  having  been  appointed  in  1690  to 
the  command  of  the  Bastille,  came  to  Sainte- 
Marguerite  to  fetch  him,  and  bore  him  thence — 
always  in  his  mask — to  the  Bastille.  Before 
his  removal,  he  was  seen  in  the  Isle  by  the 
Marquis  de  Louvois,  who  remained  standing 
while  he  spoke  to  him  with  a  consideration 
savouring  of  respect.  In  the  Bastille,  the 
unknown  was  as  well  bestowed  as  was  possible 
in  that  place,  and  nothing  that  he  asked  for  was 
refused  him.  He  had  a  passion  for  lace  and 
fine  linen  ;  he  amused  himself  with  the  guitar  ; 
and  his  table  was  furnished  with  the  best.  The 
governor  rarely  sat  down  in  his  presence. 
An  old  doctor  of  the  Bastille,  who  had  often 
attended  this   interesting    prisoner,    said    that, 


56  THE  MAN  IN  THE  IRON  MASK. 

although  he  had  examined  his  tongue  and  the 
rest  of  his  body,  he  had  never  seen  his  face. 
He  was  admirably  made,  said  the  doctor,  and 
his  skin  was  of  a  brownish  tint.  He  spoke 
charmingly,  with  a  voice  of  a  deeply  interesting 
quality;  never  complaining  of  his  lot,  and 
never  letting  it  be  guessed  who  he  was.  This 
unknown  captive  died  in  1703,  and  was  buried 
by  night  in  the  parish  of  Saint- Paul.  What  is 
doubly  astonishing  is  this  :  that  when  he  was 
sent  to  Sainte- Marguerite  there  did  not  dis- 
appear from  Europe  any  personage  of  note. 
This  was  he,  beyond  a  doubt,  for  observe  what 
happened  within  a  few  days  of  his  arrival 
at  the  Isle.  The  governor  himself  laid  the 
prisoner's  table,  and  then  withdrew  and  locked 
the  door.  One  day  the  prisoner  wrote  some- 
thing with  a  knife  on  a  silver  plate,  and  threw 
the  plate  out  of  the  window  towards  a  boat  on 
the  shore,  almost  at  the  foot  of  the  tower. 
A  fisherman,  to  whom  the  boat  belonged,  picked 


ELDER  BROTHER   AND   THE    TWIN.       57 

up  the  plate  and  carried  it  to  the  governor, 
who,  surprised  beyond  measure,  asked  the 
man  :  '  Have  you  read  what  is  written  on  this 
plate,  and  has  anyone  seen  it  in  your  hands  ? ' 
1  I  cannot  read,'  answered  the  fisherman  ;  '  I 
have  only  just  found  it,  and  no  one  else  has 
seen  it.'  He  was  detained  until  the  governor 
had  made  sure  that  he  could  not  read,  and  that 
no  other  person  had  seen  the  plate.  '  Go,'  he 
then  said,  '  It  is  well  for  you  that  you  cannot 
read.'"  * 

It  will  be  seen  that   Voltaire   does   not  say 

*  The  reader  will  be  interested  in  comparing  with  this  the  version 
which  Pere  Papon  gives  in  his  Histoire  Ge'ne'ralede Provence.  Here,  it  will 
be  observed,  the  issue  is  more  tragical.  Says  Father  Papon  :  "I  met 
in  the  Citadel  an  officer  of  the  Free  Company,  aged  seventy-nine.  He 
told  me  more  than  once  that  a  frater  of  that  company  saw  one  day, 
under  the  prisoner's  window,  some  white  thing  floating  on  the  water. 
He  brought  it  to  shore,  and  carried  it  to  M.  de  Saint-Mars.  It  was  a 
shirt  of  very  fine  linen,  carelessly  folded,  which  the  prisoner  had  com- 
pletely covered  with  writing.  Unfolding  it,  and  reading  a  few  lines, 
M.  de  Saint-Mars,  with  an  air  of  great  embarrassment,  asked  the  frater 
if  he  had  not  had  the  curiosity  to  read  it  himself.  The  frater  declared 
over  and  over  again  that  he  had  read  nothing  ;  nevertheless,  two  days 
later,  he  was  found  dead  in  his  bed." 


58  THE  MAN  IN  THE  IRON  MASK. 

as  yet  who  his  extraordinary  prisoner  was. 
"  He  observed  the  impression  his  story  had 
produced.  Then,  growing  bolder,  he  in- 
sinuated in  the  first  edition  of  the  '  Questions 
on  the  Encyclopaedia'  that,  if  the  prisoner 
were  masked,  it  was  a  precaution  taken  to 
prevent  the  recognition  of  a  certain  striking 
likeness.  He  still  withheld  the  name,  but 
every  ear  was  straining  now  for  some  impos- 
ing revelation."  * 

It  came  at  last,  in  the  second  edition 
of  the  "  Questions  on  the  Encyclopaedia." 
This  time  Voltaire,  afraid  to  captain  his 
fantasy,  took  cover  behind  his  publisher. 
The  paragraph  had  better  be  translated  at 
length  : — 

"  The  Iron  Mask  was  without  doubt  a 
brother,  and  an  elder  brother,  of  Louis  XIV., 
whose  mother  had  that  taste  for  fine  linen 
with  which  M.  de  Voltaire  has  re-enforced  his 

*  Funck-Brentano. 


ELDER  BROTHER   AND   THE   TWIN.       59 

case.*  Reading  the  contemporary  Memoirs  in 
which  this  anecdote  of  the  Queen  finds  men- 
tion, I  had  not  a  doubt  that  this  was  her  son,  a 
conclusion  to  which  various  other  circumstances 
had  already  guided  me.  It  is  known  that 
Louis  XIII.  had  long  ceased  to  share  the 
Queen's  couch,  and  that  the  birth  of  Louis 
XIV.  was  the  fruit  of  a  happy  accident. 
Here,  as  I  believe,  is  the  history  of  the  affair  : 
The  Queen  had  come  to  persuade  herself  that 
hers  alone  was  the  fault  which  had  deprived 
Louis  XIII.  of  an  heir.  The  birth  of  the 
Iron  Mask  undeceived  her  on  that  point. 
The  Cardinal,f  to  whom  she  had  confided 
her  secret,  saw  where  his  advantage  lay  in 
it.      He    could   shape    it    at    once    to   his    own 

*"It  was  made  to  appear — although  nothing  has  ever  been 
advanced  in  proof — that  the  Mask  was  addicted  to  the  wearing  of 
fine  linen  ;  and  Anne  of  Austria,  we  know,  was  particularly  fond  of 
laces  and  embroideries.  But  this  taste  is  not  exactly  confined  to 
royal  families,  and  is  perhaps  a  little  insufficient  to  convict  a  queen  of 
adultery." — Vte.  Maurice  Boutry. 

t  Richelieu. 


6o  THE  MAN  IN  THE  IRON  MASK. 

profit  and  to  the  profit  of  the  State.  Satisfied, 
by  what  had  occurred,  that  the  Queen  was 
able  to  give  children  to  France,  he  arranged 
to  bring  her  Majesty  and  the  King  together. 
But  both  Queen  and  Cardinal  being  equally 
persuaded  of  the  necessity  of  concealing  from 
Louis  XIII.  the  existence  of  the  Iron  Mask, 
they  had  the  child  removed  in  secret. 
Louis  XIV.  remained  in  ignorance  of  the 
matter  until  after  the  death  of  Cardinal 
Mazarin.  Then,  and  not  till  then,  did  it 
come  to  the  knowledge  of  the  King  that 
he  had  a  brother  living,  an  elder  brother,  more- 
over, whom  his  mother  could  not  possibly 
disown,  and  in  whom  some  signal  likeness 
might  not  improbably  declare  his  origin. 
Reflecting  that  this  Prince,  born  in  wedlock, 
could  not,  without  the  gravest  consequences 
and  most  dire  scandal,  be  pronounced  illegiti- 
mate after  the  decease  of  Louis  XIII., 
Louis  XIV.  could  have  fallen  on  no  measure 


Anne  of  Austria. 


ELDER   BROTHER   AND   THE   TWIN.       63 

wiser  or  more  just  than  the  one  which  he 
adopted  ;  and  that  measure,  in  addition,  while 
securing  his  own  safety  and  the  tranquillity 
of  the  State,  spared  him  an  act  of  cruelty 
which  a  sovereign  less  conscientious  and 
less  magnanimous  would  have  accepted  as 
necessary." 

"  What  unlikelinesses,  what  contradictions, 
what  abounding  errors  have  we  here,"  ex- 
claims Topin,  within  the  compass  of  a  page  or 
two !  This  strange  unknown  whom  no  one  is 
allowed  to  look  upon,  whose  doctor  even 
may  never  see  him  unmasked,  yet  who  is 
confidently  asserted  to  be  beautiful  and  noble 
of  feature :  Saint-Mars  appointed  to  the 
Bastille  in  1690  (eight  years  before  he  received 
that  command),  and  traversing  all  France 
to  seek  a  prisoner  for  whom,  during  twenty- 
eight  years,  some  other  gaoler  has  sufficed  : 
this  mask  with  the  steel  springs  which  covers 
the  prisoner's   visage  night    and  day   without 


64         THE  MAN  IN  THE  IRON  MASK. 

destroying  his  health  :  that  beatific  resigna- 
tion to  his  lot,  and  unwillingness  to  disclose 
his  identity,  on  the  part  of  a  prisoner  who 
flings  silver  plates  out  of  window  after  com- 
mitting to  them  some  history  which  all  but 
sends  the  governor  into  an  apoplexy  :  her 
Majesty's  taste  for  fine  linen,  so  extremely 
unfortunate,  since  it  is  presently  to  be  trans- 
formed into  invincible  proof  of  the  birth  of 
an  unlawful  child  :  this  Queen,  again,  who  has 
been  already  three  times  enceinte,  heaping 
herself  with  reproaches  that  she  can  give 
the  King  no  heir  :  her  infatuated  resolve  to 
share  with  Richelieu,  a  sworn  enemy,  the 
secret  of  a  guilty  intrigue  :  a  Queen  of  France, 
in  the  momentous  hour  of  child-birth,  with  no 
confidant  but  the  prime  minister  :  and  these 
two  tremendous  events,  the  birth  and  stealthy 
removal  of  a  royal  child,  so  shrewdly  dis- 
simulated that  not  a  single  Memoir  of  the 
period     has      mention     of    them — these     are 


ELDER  BROTHER  AND    THE   TWIN.       65 

among  the  first  reflections  which  this  amazing 
narrative    suggests.* 

And  now  for  the  history,  not  less  diverting 
and  equally  veracious,  of  the  Twin.  This  is 
the  invention  wrought  by  the  Abbe  Soulavie 
into  his  apocryphal  Memoir es  du  Marechal 
Due  de  Richelieu,  first  published  in  London 
in  1790.  Written  in  a  not  inelegant  French, 
we  are  asked  to  accept  it  as  the  composition 
of  Saint-Mars,f  who,  incapable  of  a  literary 
sentence,  groaned  over  the  spelling  of  a  six- 
line  despatch. 

"  The  unhappy  Prince  whom  I  brought  up," 
said  the  governor,  "  and  of  whom  I  had  charge 
to  the  end  of  his  days,  was  born  the  5th  of 
September,  1638,  at  half-past  eight  in  the 
evening,     while    the     King     was    at    supper. 

*  Adapted  from  Topin. 

t  "  Relation  de  la  naissance  et  de  l'education  du  prince  infortune 
soustrait  par  les  cardinaux  Richelieu  et  Mazarin  a  la  societe  et  ren- 
ferme  par  l'ordre  de  Louis  XIV.,  composed  par  le  gouverneur  de  ce 
prince  au  lit  de  mort." — M<?m.,  vol.  III.,  ch.  iv. 


66  THE  MAN  IN  THE  IRON  MASK. 

His  brother,  now  reigning  as  Louis  XIV., 
was  born  at  twelve  noon,  his  father  being  at 
dinner.  The  pomp  and  ceremony  which 
attended  the  birth  of  the  King  contrasted 
wretchedly  with  that  of  his  brother,  which 
was  closely  concealed.  Louis  XIII.  was  in- 
formed from  the  Queen's  chamber  that  her 
Majesty  was  about  to  be  delivered  of  a  second 
child  ;  and  this  double  birth  had  already  been 
predicted  to  him  by  two  shepherds,  who  had 
said  in  Paris  that  if  the  Queen  should  bring 
two  Dauphins  into  the  world,  the  State  were 
lost.  Cardinal  de  Richelieu,  consulted  by 
the  King,  replied  that,  "  if  two  children  were 
born,  the  second  must  be  put  out  of  sight, 
since  he  might  one  day  claim  the  throne. 
Tormented  by  uncertainty  as  to  what  course 
he  should  follow,  the  King's  distress  was 
overwhelming  when  the  pains  of  the  second 
accouchement  began."  The  twin  was  born, 
"  daintier  and  prettier  than  his  elder,"  and  the 


ELDER  BROTHER  AND    THE   TWIN.       67 

midwife  was  charged  with  his  safe  keeping  ! 
Where  the  luckless  infant  was  secreted  we 
are  not  told  ;  merely  that  dame  Peronnette, 
the  pearl  of  midwives,  reared  him  as  one  of 
her  own,  and  that  he  was  given  out  for  some 
nobleman's  love-child  :  an  ideally  simple  little 
method   of  disposing  of  a  Child  of  France. 

At  first,  it  is  the  great  Richelieu  him- 
self who  undertakes  the  education  of  this 
untimely  prince,  destined,  in  the  event 
of  the  Dauphin's  death,  to  succeed  to 
the  throne.  Then,  to  resume  the  legend 
so  absurdly  fathered  on  Saint-Mars,  "  the 
cardinal  confided  him  to  the  governor,  who 
was  to  bring  him  up  as  the  son  of  a  king, 
but  in  strict  secrecy.  The  governor  took  him 
to  his  own  estate  in  Burgundy.  The  Queen- 
mother  seemed  to  fear  that  if  the  birth  of  this 
young  Dauphin  became  known  the  malcontents 
of  the  kingdom  would  rise  in  his  behalf,  because 
of  the  belief  (held  from  certain  of  the  faculty) 

5* 


66  THE  MAN  IN  THE  IRON  MASK. 

that  the  last-born  of  twin  brothers  is  the  first 
conceived,  and,  in  consequence,  the  rightful 
heir.  Nevertheless,  Anne  of  Austria  could 
not  bring  herself  to  destroy  the  documents 
which  established  the  birth  of  her  son.  At 
the  age  of  nineteen,  this  State  secret  was  dis- 
covered by  the  prince  while  spying  in  a  casket 
of  his  governor,  where  he  came  upon  letters 
of  the  Queen  and  of  the  Cardinals  Richelieu 
and  Mazarin.     .     .     . 

"  The  governor  wrote  to  the  Court  asking 
for  instructions,  and  both  he  and  his  charge 
were  ordered  to  be  imprisoned,"  &c. 

Soulavie  has  had  for  his  principal  supporters 
Dulaure,  in  his  Histoire  de  Paris  (1821)  ; 
Fournier  and  Arnould,  in  the  drama  put  for- 
ward at  the  Odeon  ;  Alexandre  Dumas,  in  the 
Vicomte  de  Bragelonne  ;  Levasseur,  in  a  volume 
of  the  Memoir es  pour  Tons  (1835)  ;  and  the 
historians  Sismondi  and  Michelet. 

These,  then,  are  the  two  main  branches  of 


ELDER  BROTHER  AND    THE   TWIN.       69 

the  system  which  sets  up  the  Iron  Mask  as 
a  brother  of  Louis  XIV.  ;  Voltaire's  prevailing 
story  of  an  elder  brother,  with  Mazarin  as  the 
putative  father  ;  and  Soulavie's  creation,  more 
romanesque,  if  possible,  of  the  twin  who 
vanishes  in  the  instant  of  his  appearance. 
With  these  is  linked,  and  will  fall  naturally 
into  line,  the  story  of  the  Queen  and 
Buckingham.  Topin  sets  out  upon  his  refu- 
tation of  the  entire  system  by  asking  when 
and  in  what  circumstances  this  most  equi- 
vocal brother  of  Louis  XIV. — whether  elder 
or  twin — could  have  contrived  to  slip  unseen 
into  the  world  ?  His  birth  has  been  placed 
at  three  different  dates.  Choice  may  be 
made,  for  instance,  of  1625,  after  the  famous 
visit  of  the  Duke  of  Buckingham  to  France ; 
of  1 63 1,  following  on  that  grave  sickness  of 
Louis  XIII.,  which  had  given  rise  to  fears 
that  his  hated  brother,  Gaston  d'Orleans, 
might    be    called    to    the    throne  ;    or,    lastly, 


70  THE  MAN  IN  THE  IRON  MASK. 

1638,  eight  or  nine  hours  after  the  birth  of 
Louis  XIV.  If  the  refutation  is  to  be 
decisive,  it  should  leave  no  doubt  upon  the 
mind  that  the  birth  of  another  Dauphin  was 
as  mythical  as  his  subsequent  misfortunes. 


7i 


CHAPTER    III 


The 
Infatuation 

of 
Buckingham. 


It  was  in  May,  1625,  that  the 
brilliant  Buckingham  went  to  Paris, 
charged  by  Charles  I.  to  conduct 
to  England  his  bride  Henrietta 
Maria.  Charles's  ambassador  had  been  wel- 
comed in  advance  by  Louis  XIII.  "  I  do 
assure  you,"  that  King  had  written,  "  you  will 
be  regarded  here,  not  as  a  stranger,  but  as  a 
true  Frenchman,  for  indeed  you  are  one  at 
heart."  And  Richelieu  had  said  to  the  Marquis 
d'Effiat  :  "  M.  de  Buckingham  will  find  in  me  a 
brother."  Indeed,  Buckingham  knew  France 
well,  and  had  acquired  in  that  country  not  a 
little  of  the  grace  and  gloss  of  manner  which 
have    been    worth    so    much    to    his  memory. 


72  THE  MAN  IN  THE  IRON  MASK. 

We  are  not  at  this  day  to  bestow  much  praise 
upon  this  elegant  and  handsome  trifler,  no 
fit  counsellor  for  kings,  though  he  had  been 
counsellor  to  two  ;  but  the  courtier  shone  very 
fine  in  him,  and  he  was  an  eminently  splendid 
figure  in  a  pageant.  He  made  a  superb 
entry  at  the  Court  of  France,  "  with  more 
pomp  and  glitter  than  if  he  had  been  King," 
says  La  Rochefoucauld.  Madame  de  Motteville 
adds  that  the  Duke  seemed  to  have  treasuries 
at  command,  and  all  the  Crown  Jewels  of 
England  to  heighten  the  splendour  of  his 
wardrobe.  In  the  first  volume  of  the  Hard- 
wicke  State  Papers  is  an  account  of  the 
"  vastly  rich  cloaths  "  he  took  with  him,  "  the 
number  of  his  servants,  and  of  the  noble 
Personages  in  his  train."  A  suit  of  purple 
satin,  "  embroidered  all  over  with  rich  orient 
pearls,"  was  valued  at  .£20,000,  and  another 
of  "  white  satin  uncut  velvet,  set  all  over 
with    diamonds,"    at    four  times    that    amount. 


INFATUATION  OF  BUCKINGHAM.         73 

Paris  was  amazed  at  the  prodigality  of 
his  display.  Certain  jewels  on  the  costumes 
that  he  changed  incessantly  were  sewn 
with  such  ingenious  lack  of  skill  that  they 
detached  themselves  and  rolled  away,  "  and 
when  they  were  brought  back  to  him  the  Duke 
would  by  no  means  receive  them."  Great 
noblemen  were  in  his  suite  ;  he  had  seven 
grooms  of  the  chamber,  thirty  chief  yeomen, 
and  twenty-two  cooks,  with  pages,  footmen, 
grooms,  huntsmen,  outriders,  musicians,  and 
watermen.  Three  coaches  lined  with  velvet 
and  smothered  in  gold  lace  had  eight  horses 
and  six  coachmen  apiece  ;  and  the  Duke  had 
his  barge,  with  twenty-two  rowers  "  all  in  sky- 
coloured  tafTety."  What  with  his  attendant 
knights,  and  the  pages  of  the  knights,  his  train 
numbered  six  or  seven  hundred  persons.  He 
was  the  hero  of  the  town  and  of  the  court. 

Dazzled,    it    may    have    been,    by   his    own 
magnificence,  giddy  with  the  flatteries  that  were 


74  THE  MAN  IN  THE  IRON  MASK. 

lavished  on  him,  Buckingham  at  the  Court  of 
Louis  XIII.  could  see  none  worthy  of  his  own 
homage  but  the  young,  charming,  and  vivacious 
Queen.  He  fell  violently  in  love  with  Anne  of 
Austria,  who  was  now  between  twenty-four 
and  twenty-five  years  of  age. '  The  Queen, 
being  a  Spaniard,  was  a  natural  coquette  ; 
and  Madame  de  Motteville,  than  whom  no 
one  knew  her  better,  says  that  Anne  of  Austria 
was  not  disposed  to  blame  a  certain  open 
and  honest  gallantry  "  ou  on  ne  prend  aucun 
engagement  particulier " — in  other  words, 
which  involves  no  notion  of  compromise. 
"  She  accepted  with  a  certain  kindness  and 
no  seeming  surprise  a  passion  which,  while 
evoking  memories  of  her  own  country,  and 
even  pleasing  her  amour-propre,  offered  no 
peril  to  her  virtue."  If,  however,  the 
numerous  fetes  in  Buckingham's  honour 
brought  him  often  in  the  presence  of  the 
Queen,  the  Court  was  witness  of  their  meet- 


George  Villiers,  first  Duke  of  Buckingham,  and  his  Assassination. 

From  an  engraving  after  C.  Johnson. 


INFATUATION   OF  BUCKINGHAM.  77 

ings  ;  and  though  this  was  a  circumstance 
which  Buckingham  might  regret,  it  justified  the 
confidence  of  her  Majesty. 

A  week  of  great  parade  came  to  an  end, 
and  Henrietta  Maria,  gorgeously  escorted, 
began  her  progress  towards  England. 
Louis  XIII.,  falling  unwell,  got  no  farther 
than  Compiegne.  Anne  of  Austria,  with  her 
mother-in-law,  Marie  de  Medici,  accompanied 
the  bride  to  Amiens,  where  the  ballets,  the 
masques,  and  the  banquets  were  renewed. 
Buckingham,  it  is  said,  invented  causes  of 
delay,  that  he  might  still  be  haunting  the 
skirts  of  Anne.  As  Amiens  contained  no 
palace  capable  of  lodging  three  queens 
together,  their  Majesties  were  separately 
housed  ;  Anne  of  Austria  in  a  sumptuous 
building  in  the  midst  of  a  great  garden  on  the 
banks  of  the  Somme.  Here  the  young  Queen 
and  her  Court  would  often  stroll,  and  here  she 
found  herself  with    Buckingham    one  evening, 


78  THE  MAN  IN  THE  IRON  MASK. 

but  not  alone.  Lord  Holland  had  the  Duchesse 
de  Chevreuse  on  his  arm,  and  all  the  ladies 
of  the  Queen's  suite  were  in  attendance. 
Buckingham  conducted  Anne  ;  and  it  would 
appear  that,  emboldened  by  the  nearness 
of  their  hour  of  separation,  he  grew  more 
ardent  in  his  suit.  Night  was  falling,  and  at 
the  turning  of  an  alley  he  threw  himself  at  the 
Queen's  feet  and  besought  her  passionately. 
She,  "  alarmed,  and  alive  on  a  sudden  to  the 
danger  she  was  in,  gave  a  loud  cry  ;  and 
Putange,  her  equerry,  who  was  walking  a 
few  paces  behind,  rushed  up  and  seized 
Buckingham.  In  a  moment  the  whole  Court 
was  on  the  scene,  and  Buckingham  disappeared 
in  the  crowd."  * 

Two  days  later,  Hei^rietta  Maria  was  on  her 
way  to  Boulogne ;  Marie  de  Medici,  her 
mother,  and  Anne  of  Austria,  her  sister-in-law, 
going  with    her  to  the  gates   of  Amiens.     It 

*  Topin. 


INFATUATION  OF  BUCKINGHAM.         79 

was  on  the  step  of  Anne's  carriage  that 
Buckingham  said  his  farewell  ;  "  burying  his 
face  in  the  window-curtain  to  conceal  his 
tears."  The  Princesse  de  Conti,  who  rode  with 
the  Queen,  said  to  her  (on  Madame  de  Motte- 
ville's  assurance),  that,  "although  she  could 
answer  to  the  King  for  the  virtue  of  her 
Majesty,  she  would  say  less  for  her  on  the 
score  of  kindness — and  she  thought  the 
Queen's  eyes  held  a  kind  of  pity  for  the 
defeated  lover." 

But  Anne  had  not  seen  quite  the  last  of  him. 
Contrary  winds  stayed  Charles's  bride  at 
Boulogne,  and  Buckingham  the  proud,  who 
had  stormed  Paris  in  a  cuirass  of  diamonds, 
crept  back  to  Amiens,  with  Lord  Holland  for 
accomplice,  pretending  that  a  letter  of  import- 
ance for  Marie  de  Medici  had  been  forgotten. 
It  was  early  morning  when  he  presented  him- 
self at  Anne's  palace;  and  the  Queen,  who  had 
just  been   bled  for  some  ailment,   was  in  bed, 


80  THE  MAN  IN  THE  IRON  MASK. 

with  several  of  her  ladies  about  her.  In  royal 
houses,  up  to  the  era  of  the  Revolution,  the 
bed-chamber  was  scarcely  more  private  than 
the  boudoir,  and  Buckingham  and  Holland 
were  introduced.  Buckingham  "  fell  on  his 
knees  at  the  bedside,  kissed  the  coverlet,  and 
broke  into  a  transport  of  passion,  greatly  to 
the  scandal  of  the  maids  of  honour.  The 
Comtesse  de  Lannoi,  entreating  him  to  rise, 
said  severely  that  these  were  not  French 
ways."  "  I  am  not  a  Frenchman,"  replied 
the  Duke,  and  he  continued  to  plead  tenderly 
with  the  Queen.  Her  Majesty,  greatly  em- 
barrassed, could  find  nothing  to  say,  until  she 
roused  herself  to  reproach  the  Duke  for  his 
boldness.  But  this  she  did  with  no  great  show 
of  indignation,  and  her  heart  was  perhaps  not 
quite  untouched."  *  Buckingham  returned  to 
Boulogne,  and  never  saw  Anne  of  Austria 
again. 

*  Topin. 


INFATUATION  OF  BUCKINGHAM.  83 

These  are  the  two  memorable  scenes  of 
Amiens  with  which  scandal  was  once  very- 
busy,  but  with  which  history,  seeking  proofs, 
was  never  seriously  concerned.  During  the 
troubles  of  the  Fronde,  and  the  heat  of  civil 
war,  the  hint  of  a  criminal  love  between 
Buckingham  and  the  Queen,  whose  honour  he 
would  very  willingly  have  spoiled,  was  bruited 
often  ;  but  all  the  evidence  goes  to  show  that 
Anne  of  Austria  outwitted  a  passionate, 
unscrupulous  gallant,  and  was  never  for  an 
instant  his  victim.  A  kind  of  Spanish  tender- 
ness she  may  have  felt  for  him,  and  we  may 
suspect  her  of  no  small  skill  in  flirtation  ;  but, 
as  there  is  no  particle  of  evidence  to  adduce, 
accusation  may  go  no  farther.  It  is  abundantly 
clear  that,  so  far  as  Buckingham  was  con- 
cerned, the  Queen  was  never  without  witnesses 
to  her  conduct.  Marie  de  Medici,  who  bore 
her  daughter-in-law  no  very  goodwill  at  this 
period,  took  upon  herself  to  assure  Louis  XIII. 


84  THE  MAN  IN  THE  IRON  MASK, 

that  he  need  not  concern  himself  with  rumour; 
that  even  if  the  Queen  had  been  willing  to 
demean  herself  she  was  so  perpetually  sur- 
rounded that  the  opportunity  could  never 
have  offered.  As  for  the  impetuous  indis- 
cretions of  Buckingham,  the  Queen  had  not 
encouraged  and  could  not  well  have  prevented 
them  :  in  her  younger  days,  said  Madame  de 
Medici  to  her  son,  such  things  had  happened 
to  herself.*  Madame  might  have  added  that 
the  Due  de  Montmorency  and  the  Due  de 
Bellegarde  had  both  been  in  love  with  the 
fascinating  Queen  of  Louis  XIII.,  and  that 
neither  of  them  had  fared  one  whit  better  than 
Buckingham. 

Says  Topin: — "  Nothing  seems  to  accuse  the 
Queen  save  the  persistent  coldness  towards  her 
of  Louis  XIII.  But  does  this  conduct  date 
from  the  visit  of  Buckingham  to  Paris  ?  Was 
Louis  so  completely  estranged  from  the  Queen 

*  Memoires  of  La  Porte. 


INFATUATION  OF  BUCKINGHAM.  85 

as  has  been  supposed  ?  And  may  we  seek  in 
this  the  proof  of  an  act  of  infidelity  on  the 
Queen's  part,  whether  with  Buckingham  in 
1625,  as  the  result  of  love,  or  with  some  person 
unknown,  in  1630,  as  the  result  of  deliberate 
calculation,  and  to  the  end  that,  after  the  death 
of  Louis  XIII.,  which  at  that  moment  seemed 
imminent,  she  might  reign  in  the  name  of  her 
illegitimate  child,  who,  on  the  King's  un- 
expected recovery,  must  be  hidden  away,  to 
become  later  the  Man  in  the  Iron  Mask  ?" 


86 


CHAPTER    IV. 

Born     within    eight     days     of    one 

The  Acquittal 

0l  another,  Anne  of  Austria,  Infanta 
the  queen.  Qf  Spain,  and  Louis,  Dauphin  of 
France,  may  be  said  to  have  been  pledged 
in  infancy.  Astrologers  had  announced  that, 
delivered  under  one  star,  they  were  des- 
tined to  love  each  other,  married  or  not 
married.  The  little  Anne  lent  a  willing  ear 
to  the  wise  men's  predictions  ;  and  when,  at 
the  age  of  twelve,  she  was  bidding  good-bye 
to  the  Due  de  Mayenne,  who  had  come  to 
Madrid  to  sign  the  marriage  contract,  she 
instructed  him  to  tell  the  King  that  she  was 
"extremely  impatient  to  see  him."  Her 
governess  was  shocked,  but  the  Infanta  replied 
that  it  had  always  been  recommended  to  her 
to  speak  the  truth.     Two  years  later,  in   1615, 


THE  ACQUITTAL    OF  THE    QUEEN.        87 

she  was  a  bride  of  fourteen,  and  as  enthusiastic 
as  ever  about  the  boy  she  had  married. 

Much  less  enthusiastic  was  the  boy.  He 
had  always  declared  that  he  hated  the 
Spaniards,  "  because  they  are  the  enemies  of 
Papa  "  ;  and  on  two  occasions,  when  his  father, 
Henri  IV.,  talked  to  him  of  his  future  marriage 
with  the  Infanta,  he  gave  stubborn  answers  in 
the  negative.  He  was  grave  and  observant 
for  his  years,  intolerant  of  the  King's  mistresses 
who  tried  to  conciliate  him,  and  precociously 
fierce  against  their  children,  whom  he  would 
not  call  his  brothers  and  would  not  suffer  at 
his  table.  After  the  death  of  Henry  IV.,  the 
boy-King  shewed  himself  less  and  less  in 
sympathy  with  the  gross  speech  and  habits  of 
the  Court,  and  was  fonder  of  hawking  than  of 
chambering. 

The  idea  of  marriage  seems  always  to  have 
repelled  him,  and  after  four  years  of  wedded 
life,  Anne  was   a  wife  only  to  the  extent  that 


88  THE  MAN  IN  THE  IRON  MASK. 

the  church  had  made  her  one.  The  conduct 
of  the  King  had  become,  indeed,  almost  a 
question  of  State.  His  determined  abstention 
had  moved  the  French  Court,  it  had  offended 
the  Court  of  Spain,  it  was  regarded  as  a  slight 
by  the  papal  nuncio  and  the  Court  of  Tuscany, 
whose  aid  had  been  considerable  in  bringing 
about  the  union. 

In  January,  1619,  some  kind  of  rapproche- 
ment seems  to  have  been  effected,  but  the 
hopes  that  were  built  on  it  were  disappointed. 
Again  in  1622  it  was  said  with  confidence 
that  an  heir  to  the  throne  might  be  expected, 
but  almost  immediately  afterwards  the  Queen 
was  the  victim  of  an  accident.  The  visit  of 
Buckingham  left  the  King  unmoved,  and  had 
no  result  in  modifying  his  relations  with  the 
Queen.  Having  freed  himself  from  his 
mother's  yoke,  Louis  XIII.  passed  absolutely 
under  that  of  Richelieu  ;  and  jealously  as  the 
cardinal-minister  watched  the  young  sovereign, 


Louis    XIII. 


THE  ACQUITTAL    OF  THE   QUEEN.        91 

he  was  yet  more  jealous  in  his  surveillance  of 
the  Queen,  an  object  of  his  implacable  resent- 
ment. Is  it  possible  for  one  moment  to  believe 
in  an  intrigue  of  hers,  with  Buckingham,  with 
Mazarin,  or  with  another,  which  Richelieu 
fails  to  know  of,  whose  spies  penetrated  to  the 
inmost  recesses  of  the  Court  ?  And  knowing 
it,  would  he  have  hesitated  an  instant  to  ruin 
the  woman  whom  he  hated,  by  confiding  his 
knowledge  to  the  King  ? 

Let  us  consider  next  the  circumstances  of 
the  illness  of  Louis  XIII.  in  1630.  The  King 
fell  ill  at  Lyons,  not,  says  Topin,  at  the 
beginning  of  August  (which  has  been  asserted), 
but  on  the  22nd  of  September;  "  and  here 
the  dates  are  of  the  utmost  importance."  On 
the  29th,  an  exhausting  dysentery  added  itself 
to  a  severe  attack  of  fever,  and  at  midnight 
the  doctors  despaired  of  saving  him.  He  took 
a  tender  farewell  of  the  Queen,  and  entreated 
her  forgiveness  for  all  things.     Towards  noon 


92  THE  MAN  IN  THE  IRON  MASK. 

of  the  next  day  the  King  still  lingered,  and 
the  Archbishop  of  Lyons  was  preparing  to 
administer  extreme  unction,  when  the  doctors, 
who  had  already  bled  the  enfeebled  body  six 
times,  ordered  a  seventh  bleeding.  This 
would  assuredly  have  carried  off  the  patient, 
but  before  the  operation  could  be  performed 
the  true  cause  of  the  malady  revealed  itself: 
an  abscess  in  the  stomach  broke,  and  the 
King  was  saved. 

On  his  recovery,  Louis  XIII.  quitted  Lyons 
with  the  Queen,  whose  unaffected  tender- 
ness and  solicitude  at  his  sick  bed  had 
touched  him  closely.  "  In  that  crisis,  both 
had  forgotten  the  past.  The  coldness  of  the 
one  was  overcome,  the  wounded  pride  of  the 
other  was  healed."  Exulting  in  her  unwonted 
empire,  it  was  not  enough  for  the  Queen  to 
have  won  a  tardy  place  in  her  husband's 
heart  ;  she  desired  to  complete  her  triumph 
by  casting  down  the  minister  who  had  -opposed 


THE  ACQUITTAL    OF  THE    QUEEN.       93 

himself  between  them,  and,  at  one  moment, 
she  had  nearly  been  successful — but  the  King 
could  rule  only  by  the  Cardinal. 

In  January,  1631,  the  Queen  was  manifestly 
enceinte.  Supposing  this  the  result  of  a 
criminal  intrigue,  at  what  date  should  the 
commencement  of  the  pregnancy  be  placed  ? 

"  Is  it,  as  was  asserted,  at  the  moment  and 
by  reason  of  the  apparently  imminent  death 
of  Louis  XIII.?  But  the  Queen  was  delivered 
within  the  first  five  days  of  April ;  consequently 
the  child,  conceived  the  30th  of  September, 
would  by  no  means  have  attained  the  full 
period,  and  could  not,  therefore,  have  become 
the  Man  in  the  Iron  Mask.*  Was  it  on  the 
arrival  of  Louis  XIII.  at  Lyons  early  in  the 
August  of  1630?  But  at  this  date,  Anne  of 
Austria  had  not  the  vital  motive  for  becoming 
a   mother,    which,    according    to    her  accusers, 

*  The  medical  science  of  the  present  day  might  succeed  in  saving 
such  a  child  ;  but  the  chances  would  be  very  slight  indeed. 


94  THE  MAN  IN  THE  IRON  MASK. 

she  had  on  the  30th  of  September,  when  the 
King  lay  on  the  threshold  of  death.  Either, 
then,  the  child  is  born  incapable  of  living, 
or  its  conception  mounts  to  an  epoch  which 
makes  Louis  XIII.  the  father,  because  the 
Queen  had  no  need  to  procure  herself  an  heir 
by  unlawful  means." 

The  truth  is,  that  this,  the  third  pregnancy 
of  Anne  of  Austria,  traces  to  the  reconciliation 
which  followed  on  the  desperate  illness  of 
the  King.  Richelieu  himself  is  a  witness  here. 
"  If  France  should  be  blessed  with  this 
fortune,"  he  wrote,  "it  will  be  the  fruit  of 
God's  blessing,  and  of  the  kindly  relations 
established  of  late  between  his  Majesty  and 
the  Queen."  *  Not  a  word  on  Richelieu's  part 
which    inculpates    or    seeks    to    inculpate    the 

*  Lett  res  et  papier s  de  Richelieu.  Found  among  the  letters  and 
documents  which  passed  from  the  hands  of  the  Duchesse  d'Aiguillon, 
Richelieu's  niece,  to  the  Archives  de  VEtat,  and  which  were  published 
by  the  learned  Avenet  in  his  collection  of  Documents  inedits  de 
Vhistoire  de  France. 


THE  ACQUITTAL    OF  THE   QUEEN.       95 

Queen,  and  it  has  been  observed  with  justice, 
that  history  could  never  hope  to  be  better 
instructed  than  that   "  clairvoyant   and  pitiless 


minister." 


Not  for  seven  years  were  the  ardent  hopes 
of  the  nation  to  be  realised.  On  the  5th  of 
September,  1638,  Anne  of  Austria  gave  birth 
to  a  son  who  was  to  ascend  the  throne  as 
Louis  XIV.  This  is  also  the  day  which  has 
been  assigned  to  the  birth  of  the  Iron  Mask 
by  those  who,  rejecting  the  theory  of  an 
illegitimate  child,  have  pronounced  for  that 
of  a  twin  brother,  born  in  the  evening,  "  and 
condemned,  for  his  tardy  arrival,  to  perpetual 
imprisonment."  The  problem  of  the  twin  is 
briefly  to  be  considered.  In  no  country  in 
Europe,  perhaps,  was  the  birth  of  a  royal  child 
more  jealously  scrutinised,  more  elaborately 
and  minutely  attested,  than  in  the  France  of 
the  Monarchy.  Such  an  event  might  over- 
whelm  the   expectations   of  a   collateral    heir, 


96  THE  MAN  IN  THE  IRON  MASK. 

or  might  ruin  the  prospects  of  a  party. 
Precautions  the  most  extraordinary  were 
employed,  precautions  which  may  be  said, 
practically,  to  have  excluded  the  possibility 
of  fraud  or  deception.  Not  only  were  the 
greatest  persons  in  the  State  compelled  to  be 
eye-witnesses  of  the  event,  but  the  people 
itself  was  summoned  "  to  assist  "at  the  birth 
of  the  Child  of  France.  The  doors  of  the 
royal  dwelling  were  flung  open  in  this  solemn 
hour,  the  people  thronged  in,  and  passed  freely 
into  the  innermost  chambers  of  the  palace. 
Madame  Campan  relates  how,  at  the  birth 
of  the  first  child  of  Marie  Antoinette,  the  room 
in  which  the  Queen  lay  was  so  intolerably 
crowded  that  Louis  XVI.  broke  a  window 
to  let  in  more  air.  Indeed,  this  practice,  so 
distressing  and  humiliating  to  the  royal  mother, 
was  invariable  and  all  but  immemorial. 

It  was  not  omitted  at  the  birth  of  Louis  XIV. 
At  five  o'clock  on  the  morning  of  the  5th  of 


THE  ACQUITTAL    OF  THE   QUEEN.       97 

September,  1638,  Louis  XIII.  was  summoned 
to  the  Queen's  chamber,  where  he  remained 
until  he  had  the  happiness  to  know  that  a 
son  and  heir  had  been  born  to  him.  At 
six,  there  arrived  in  succession  at  Saint- 
Germain,  the  King's  brother,  Gaston  d'Orleans 
(who  had  a  vital  interest  in  assuring  him- 
self that  the  birth  was  genuine),  the  Prin- 
cesse  de  Conde,  Madame  de  Vendome,  the 
Chancellor,  Madame  de  Lansac  (the  future 
governess  of  the  prince)  and  Mesdames  de 
Senecey  and  de  la  Flotte  of  the  royal  house- 
hold. Close  to  the  Queen's  couch  an  altar 
had  been  raised,  where  the  Bishops  of  Lisieux, 
Meaux,  and  Beauvais  pronounced  mass  in 
turn.  Pressing  up  to  the  altar  and  flowing 
out  into  the  room  beyond,  were  princesses, 
dukes,  duchesses,  and  bishops,  "  with  a  vast 
crowd  of  the  common  folk  who  had  invaded 
the  palace  from  an  early  hour,  and  who  now 
completely  filled  it." 

7 


98         THE  MAN  IN  THE  IRON  MASK. 

At  eleven  a.m.  precisely  the  Queen's  pangs 
were  over,  and  the  birth  of  a  prince  was 
announced.  The  resentment,  ill-concealed, 
of  Gaston  d'Orleans  did  not  escape  a  few 
observant  eyes,  but  passed  almost  unnoticed 
amid  the  general  joy.  The  melancholy  Louis 
XIII.  broke  into  smiles,  and  called  on  those 
around  him  to  admire  the  fine  proportions 
of  his  son.  Shortly  afterwards,  and  in  the 
Queen's  chamber,  the  Child  of  France  was 
baptised  by  the  Bishop  of  Meaux,  chaplain-in- 
chief.  A  King's  messenger  was  despatched 
in  all  haste  to  bear  the  great  news  to 
Paris,  but  the  joyous  cries  of  the  populace 
outran  his  horse  all  along  the  route,  and 
as  the  messenger  galloped  into  the  capital, 
the  bells  were  already  swinging  in  every 
church. 

Meanwhile,  what  of  the  Twin  ?  The  state- 
ment of  Soulavie  was,  it  will  be  remembered, 
that  the  Queen  was  delivered  at  eight  in  the 


Cardinal  Richelieu. 
After  Champaigne. 


THE  ACQUITTAL    OF  THE   QUEEN.     101 

evening  of  a  second  son,  who,  conformably 
to  Richelieu's  counsel,  was  privily  and  at 
once  put  away.  The  role  here  invented  for 
Richelieu  was  of  such  immense  importance 
that  Soulavie  should  at  least  have  been  careful 
to  know  where  the  Cardinal  was  at  this  capital 
moment.  For  the  truth  is  that  Richelieu 
was  not  at  Saint-Germain  at  all.  He  had 
quitted  the  Court  at  the  end  of  July  ;  he  was 
at  Saint-Quentin  on  the  day  of  Louis  XIV.'s 
birth,  and  he  did  not  return  to  Paris  until 
the  2nd  of  October.  The  letter  of  congratula- 
tion which  he  wrote  to  their  Majesties  from 
Saint-Quentin  is  printed  in  his  Lettres  et 
papier s.  Richelieu,  then,  is  summoned  in  vain 
as  a  principal  instrument  of  the  plot  imagined 
by  Soulavie.  As  the  Queen's  enemy,  he  had 
every  interest  to  denounce  her  to  the  King  ; 
as  her  suppositious  friend  and  accomplice, 
he  could  scarcely  have  aided,  at  the  distance 
of  Saint-Quentin,   the  conspiracy   which   must 


io2       THE  MAN  IN  THE  IRON  MASK. 

have  been  compressed   within   an   hour   at  the 
utmost  in  the  palace  of  Saint-Germain. 

But  let  Richelieu  be  dismissed  from  the 
case.  We  are  to  receive  as  plausible  the 
suggestion  that  a  twin  brother  of  Louis  XIV. 
is  born  without  the  knowledge  of  the  Court. 
The  birth  is  nine  hours  late,  but  the  palace 
is  still  swarming  with  the  princes  of  the 
family — and  no  one  has  heard  of  it.  Or,  it 
is  known  to  all,  and  all  are  agreed,  for  no 
conceivable  reason,  to  keep  the  secret.  The 
secret  is  so  well  kept,  moreover,  that  never 
once  is  it  divulged  or  even  hinted  at  in  any 
Memoir  of  the  period.  We  have  contem- 
porary notices  of  Anne  of  Austria  which  are 
scarcely  discreet,  and  we  have  others  which 
are  less  than  discreet ;  but  we  have  no  record 
of  her  by  any  writer  of  her  own  day  which 
contains  the  faintest  reference  to  the  surrep- 
titious birth  of  a  twin  brother  of  Louis  XIV. 

Let  this  birth,  however,  be  admitted.     Let 


THE  ACQUITTAL    OF  THE   QUEEN.     103 

it  be  supposed  that,  at  eight  in  the  evening, 
the  witnesses  were  few,  and  had  pledged 
themselves  to  secrecy.  Was  there  any  reason 
for  secrecy?  Why  should  Louis  XIII.  be, 
as  Soulavie  says,  on  the  point  of  fainting 
when  he  learns  that  he  has  two  heirs  instead 
of  one  ?  The  question  of  the  trouble  that 
might  arise  from  the  idea  that  the  second 
born  is  the  first  conceived  is  not  admissible  ; 
for,  never  sanctioned  in  medicine,  this  em- 
pirical theory  had  no  recognition  in  the  law 
of  France.  From  commoner  to  King,  the 
first-born  was  the  heir.  Far,  therefore,  from 
being  alarmed  by  the  birth  of  a  twin,  Louis 
XIII.  had  reason  to  praise  his  fortune,  for 
the  right  of  inheritance  was  now  doubly 
consolidated  in  his  own  family. 

Once  more,  however,  for  the  rounding  off 
of  the  argument,  let  the  impossible  be  received 
and  acquiesced  in.  This  ambiguous  son  of 
Anne  of  Austria  is  born,  we  will  say.     He  is 


104        THE  MAN  IN  THE  IRON  MASK. 

brought  into  the  world  shortly  before  1625,  and 
Buckingham  is  his  father;  or  in  1631,  when 
Louis  XIII.  is  believed  to  be  dying,  and 
Mazarin,  or  some  gallant  unknown,  is  his 
father;  or  in  1638,  when  he  is  presented  to 
us  as  the  most  interesting,  the  most  romantic, 
and  the  most  unfortunate  of  twins.  Entrusted 
to  some  creature  of  consummate  devotion  and 
discretion,  he  is  reared  in  the  country  ;  and 
if,  in  the  course  of  time,  there  is  developed  a 
rather  striking  likeness  to  a  certain  Queen- 
mother  or  a  King,  no  one  perceives  it,  or 
those  who  do  perceive  it  are  polite  enough 
to  refrain  from  questions.  But  at  what  epoch 
was  he  imprisoned,  and  for  what  cause  ? 
"  From  the  day  that  he  becomes  the  famous 
prisoner  whom  Saint-Mars  conducts  in  1698 
from  Sainte-Marguerite  to  the  Bastille,  we 
have  the  right  to  ask  when,  how,  and  in 
what  circumstances  he  was  arrested  and  con- 
fided to  his  gaoler  ?  " 


THE  ACQUITTAL    OF  THE    QUEEN.     105 

He  was  allowed  his  liberty,  we  will  suppose, 
during  the  lifetime  of  Anne  of  Austria;  that 
would  be  not  unreasonable,  provided  he  were 
kept  out  of  sight.  Was  he  imprisoned  after 
her  death  ?  But  Anne  of  Austria  died  in 
January,  1666,  and  Saint-Mars  receives  no 
prisoner.  Did  the  arrest  take  place,  as 
Voltaire  affirms,  in  1661,  after  the  death  of 
Mazarin  ?  But  at  this  date,  and  three  years 
later,  Saint-Mars  was  still  an  officer  of 
musketeers.  It  was  not  until  December,  1664, 
that  he  was  appointed  to  the  governorship 
of  Pignerol,  where,  in  the  following  month, 
he  received  Fouquet  into  his  keeping.  On 
the  20th  of  August,  1669,  arrives  at  Pignerol 
a  second  prisoner,  one  Eustache  Dauger. 
But  Dauger  is  known  to  us  :  an  obscure 
spy,  he  was  given  as  a  servant  to  Fouquet. 
Is  it  likely  that  Saint- Mars  would  have 
appointed  to  wait  on  Fouquet — who  had 
passed    all    his    life    near    Louis    XIV.     and 


io6       THE  MAN  IN  THE  IRON  MASK. 

Anne  of  Austria — a  prince  whose  features 
recalled  the  King's  ?  From  the  date  of 
Dauger's  imprisonment  no  other  prisoner  is 
sent  to  Saint-Mars  until  the  Comte  de 
Lauzun  goes  to  Pignerol  in  167 1.  After 
that,  at  long  intervals,  other  prisoners  are 
led  thither,  but  they  are  all  identified,  their 
crimes  or  their  faults  are  known. 

"  We  see  them  sometimes  not  too  well 
treated;  and  when,  in  i68r,  Saint-Mars  passes 
from  the  command  of  Pignerol  to  that  of 
Exiles,  he  takes  with  him  two  prisoners 
only,  whom  he  styles  contemptuously  "a  pair 
of  gaol-birds."  At  Exiles,  at  Pignerol,  at 
Sainte-Marguerite  (which  dungeon  wTas  taken 
over  by  Saint-Mars  in  1687),  if  new  prisoners 
are  entrusted  to  him,  we  know  to  what 
motives  their  incarceration  may  be  attributed  ; 
and  nothing  in  their  past,  nothing  in  their 
treatment  in  prison,  nothing  in  their  conduct 
allows  us  to  suspect  in    any  one  of  them    a 


Cardinal  Mazarin. 

After  Mignard. 


THE  ACQUITTAL    OF  THE   QUEEN.     109 

brother    of  Louis    XIV.       Needless    to    say, 
Saint-Mars  would  not  be  likely  to  designate 
his   prince  by  name  in   any   official   despatch, 
nor  should   proof  of  that  kind  be  demanded. 
But  when,  after  having  examined  in  turn  all 
the    prisoners   whom    the    future   governor    of 
the    Bastille   had    in    his   charge — and  among 
whom     must     of     necessity     be     found     that 
mysterious     one     with     whom     he    traversed 
France  in    1698 — we  have  satisfied  ourselves 
as   to   the   causes   of   their   arrest,    and    have 
penetrated   into  their   past ;   when  a   hundred 
authentic    despatches*    render    it    absolutely 
certain    that     beyond    these    prisoners     there 
was  no  other,  have  we  not  reason  to  conclude 
with  the  question  :   Where  then  is  the  son  of 
Anne  d' Autriche  ?  "  f 

Tradition,     fable,     legend,    ensnare     us     at 

:    *  Archives  du  ministere  de  la  marine. — Archives  du  ministere  de  la 
guerre. — Archives    du    ministere    des    affaires    itrangeres. — Archives 
impiriales  .\ 
t  Topin. 


no       THE  MAN  IN  THE  IRON  MASK. 

every  turn  in  this  enquiry.  Truth  and  fiction 
are  interwoven  in  the  strangest  manner. 
Around  every  legendary  hero  the  adventures 
of  other  persons  gradually  group  themselves, 
and  this  has  been  signally  the  case  with  the 
Man  in  the  Mask.  How  interesting — in  its 
relation  to  the  hypothesis  of  the  king's 
brother — is  the  story  of  the  boundless  defer- 
ence shown  to  the  prisoner,  and  the  visit  he 
received  at  Sainte-Marguerite  from  the  minis- 
ter Louvois,  who  addresses  him  "  with  a 
consideration  savouring  of  respect."  But  we 
shall  see  presently  that  no  one  goes  out  of 
his  way  to  show  deference  to  the  Mask  ;  and, 
as  for  the  visit  of  Louvois,  that  is  pure  in- 
vention. In  1680  (eight  years,  be  it  noted, 
before  Saint-Mars  took  the  Man  in  the 
Mask  to  the  Isles)  Louvois,  who  had  broken 
his  leg,  went  to  Bareges  for  a  few  weeks  to 
complete  his  cure  In  Rousset's  Histoire 
de    Louvois,    we    have    the    detailed    itinerary 


THE  ACQUITTAL    OF  THE    QUEEN,     m 

of  the  journey,  and  Sainte- Marguerite  is  not 
found  in  it  ;  nor,  after  this,  was  Louvois 
ever  again  in  the  south  of  France.  The 
piquant  episode  of  the  silver  plate  (trans- 
formed by  Pere  Papon  into  a  linen  shirt) 
is  bound  up  with  the  theory  of  a  brother 
or  a  twin  brother  of  Louis  XIV.,  and  is 
highly  interesting  as  an  example  of  the 
commingling  of  fact  with  fiction  in  the 
popular  history  of  the  Mask.  The  story  of 
the  plate,  as  will  be  plain,  has  its  origin  in 
the  attempt  at  escape  of  a  Protestant  minis- 
ter confined  at  Sainte-Marguerite  in  1692. 
Indeed,  it  was  scarcely  even  an  attempt  at 
escape :  the  Protestant  minister  writes  some 
complaint  on  his  pewter-plate  or  vessel  (is  it 
necessary  to  say  that  State  prisoners  of  the 
17th  century  were  not  served  on  silver?), 
and  flings  it  out  of  window.  Out  of  this 
commonplace  fact  has  arisen  the  pungent 
tale    of  the    silver    dish    which    is    nearly    the 


ii2       THE  MAN  IN  THE  IRON  MASK. 

death  of  the  fisherman  who  rescues  it.  It 
was  believed — and  it  has  still  a  kind  of 
illiterate  currency. 

There  are  legends  which,  doing  hurt  to 
no  one's  memory,  it  seems  almost  a  pity  to 
displace  by  fact ;  but  it  is  always  grateful 
to  slay  a  fable  which  has  involved  a  repu- 
tation in  disgrace.  This  has  been  the  inte- 
rest and  the  motive  of  refuting  once  again 
the  discarded  and  long-contemned  invention 
of  Voltaire,  which,  modified  variously  by 
successive  writers,  has  crammed  the  mind  of 
Christendom.  It  may  lessen  the  charm  of 
the  story  to  remove  from  it  the  captivating 
person  of  a  brother  of  Louis  XIV.,  but  the 
arid  truth  of  history  repeats  that  the  Iron 
Mask  was  not  a  son  of  Anne  of  Austria. 
Who  |has  proved  the  birth  of  the  pretended 
prince  ?  Who  'will  give  the  date  of  his 
imprisonment  ?  Not  even  in  the  France  of 
the  old  Monarchy  were  royal  infants  delivered 


THE  ACQUITTAL    OF  THE   QUEEN.     113 

by  the  gods,  and  inscrutably  concealed  by 
them.  The  malign  concept  of  Voltaire 
returns  again  to  the  rag-bag  of  Time — alms 
meet  for  oblivion. 


TI4 


CHAPTER    V. 

English  readers  will  not   expect   to 

The  Expiation 

of  be  detained  long  over  the  case  of 
Monmouth.  Monmouth.  Monmouth's  claims  to 
the  mask  were  the  imagination  of  an  ex-officer 
of  French  cavalry,  by  name  Germain-Francois 
Poullain  de  Saint-Foix.*  Single-handed  he 
defended  them,  but  with  the  valour  of  six.  His 
hypothesis  was  only  too  easily  destroyed,  and 
perhaps  its  most  valid  title  to  respect  during 
the  lifetime  of  Saint-Foix  lay  in  his  perfect 
readiness  to  prove  it  at  the  point  of  the 
rapier. 

The  early  career  of  Monmouth  scarcely  con- 
cerns us.  The  natural  son  of  Charles  II.  and 
Lucy  Walter  or  Walters  (the  "  browne,  beauti- 

*  Born  February  5,  1698;  died  August  25,  1776. — lung. 


THE  EXPIATION   OF  MONMOUTH.      115 

ful,  bold,  but  insipid  creature  "  whom  the  diarist 
Evelyn  encountered  in  Paris),  his  father  doted 
on  him,  the  Court  spoiled  him,  and,  in  the 
prime  of  manhood  he  was,  for  the  general 
people — 

The  young  men's  vision,  and  the  old  men's  dream  ! 

The  line  is  Dryden's,  and  the  famous  flattery 
of  the  picture  in  "  Absalom  and  Achitophel " 
may  once  again  be  cited  : — 

Early  in  foreign  fields  he  won  renown, 
With  kings  and  states  allied  to  Israel's  crown  : 
In  peace  the  thoughts  of  war  he  could  remove, 
And  seem'd  as  he  were  only  born  for  love. 
Whate'er  he  did,  was  done  with  so  much  ease, 
In  him  alone  'twas  natural  to  please  : 
His  motions  all  accompanied  with  grace ; 
And  Paradise  was  open'd  in  his  face. 

History  has  rejected  the  verdict  of  Monmouth's 
contemporaries.  A  man  of  brilliant  looks  and 
most  eminent  graces  of  person,  a  polished 
courtier,  a  sportsman,  and  (save  at  the  crisis  of 
Sedgemoor)  a  brave  man  in  battle  :  these  were 

certainly    his    best    recommendations    to     the 

8* 


n6       THE  MAN  IN   THE  IRON  MASK. 

general    goodwill.      He    lacked    almost    every 
element    of  greatness.     His    conduct    of    the 
rebellion  against  James  II.  showed  that  he  was 
neither  a  leader  nor  an  organiser  ;  defeated,  he 
left  his  devoted  followers  to  their  fate  ;  and,  in 
the    most    critical    hour    of  his    existence — the 
interview  with  the  implacable  James — he  dis- 
played  a  cowardice   and   a    baseness   of  spirit 
which  disgusted  the  King,  amazed  and  shocked 
the  French  ambassador,  and  drew  down  upon 
his  memory  the  scathing  rebukes  of  Macaulay. 
Day  was  not  yet  full  come  on  the  morning  of 
the  6th  of  July,    1685,  when   Monmouth,  with 
Grey  and  the  German   Buyse  beside  him,  was 
riding  in  flight   from  the   lost  field   of  Sedge- 
moor.      It   is   but  just  to  say   that,  up  to   the 
moment^at  which  he  knew  himself  defeated,  he 
had  fought,  on  foot  and   pike   in   hand,  like  a 
stalwart   soldier.      But    the    moment    of  defeat 
was  surely  the  one  in  which  a  rebel  of  courage 
and  of  heart  would  remember  the  men  whom  he 


Charles  II. 

From  an  engraving  by  Sherwln.     [The  wax  effigy  in  Westminster  Abbey 

was  modelled  from  this' engraving.] 


THE  EXPIATION  OF  MONMOUTH.      119 

had  summoned  to  his  flag.  History  has  few 
more  touching  instances  of  devotion  to  a  feeble 
cause  than  those  which  the  wretched  memory 
of  Sedgemoor  will  eternally  evoke.  Those 
"  Mendip  miners "  and  poor  peasants,  with 
their  scythes  and  bludgeons  and  a  few  old 
rusty  guns,  who  shouted  for  "  King 
Monmouth "  while  Monmouth  was  among 
them,  and  who  tried  to  stem  the  whirlwind 
of  James's  cavalry  when  Monmouth  had 
abandoned  them,  deserved  to  die  for  a 
better  treason,  and  for  a  nobler  traitor. 

There  is  no  need  to  rehearse  again  the 
details  of  the  flight  and  capture  of  Monmouth. 
He  must  have  realised  his  doom  in  the  hour 
of  his  arrest,  and  it  remained  to  him  only  to 
meet  it  as  the  son  of  a  king,  and  as  the  van- 
quished leader  of  an  ineffectual  revolt.  But 
twice  he  failed,  and  despicably,  in  the  fortitude 
that  inspires  the  great  insurgent.  He  had 
abandoned  his  heroic  peasants  when   his  mili- 


J20        THE  MAN  IN  THE  IRON  MASK. 

tary  knowledge  told  him  that  the  battle  had 
gone  to  the  King  ;  and  he  abandoned  his  own 
manhood  when  he  found  himself  in  James's 
clutches.  His  letter  to  the  King  from  Ring- 
wood  is  branded  by  Macaulay  as  "that  of  a 
man  whom  a  craven  fear  had  made  insensible 
to  shame" — his  behaviour  in  the  interview  with 
the  King  degrades  him  deeper  still.  It  was  an 
interview  which  James  II.  should  never  have 
accorded.  He  was  justified  in  sending  to  the 
scaffold  an  enemy  who  had  not  only  usurped 
the  title  of  king,  but  whose  proclamation  was 
charged  with  hideous  libels  ;  but,  having 
resolved  upon  the  death  of  Monmouth,  James 
should  not,  in  common  humanity,  have 
admitted  him  to  his  presence.  That  cruel 
favour,  worthy  of  the  most  resentful  sovereign 
in  English  history,  tempted  the  beaten  and 
broken  Monmouth  to  plead  miserably  and  most 
ignominiously  for  the  life  which  was  already 
lost  to  him. 


THE  EXPIATION  OF  MONMOUTH.       121 

With  his  arms  bound,  Monmouth  grovelled 
on  the  floor  at  the  King's  feet  ;  tried  to 
embrace  him  by  the  knees  ;  begged  for  life,  for 
life  only.  The  champion  of  Protestantism — a 
position  which  had  disgraced  him  with  his 
father,  and  the  plea  which  had  supported  his 
rebellion  against  his  uncle — he  offered,  in  his 
last  desperate  extremity,  to  become  a  Catholic. 
James  turned  from  him  in  contempt,  and 
Monmouth's  final  hope  was  extinguished. 

It  is  at  this  dramatic  moment  that  M. 
Germain-Francois  Poullain  de  Saint-Foix  ap- 
propriates the  doomed  adventurer,  hands  him 
over  to  Louis  XIV.,  who  passes  him  on  to 
Saint-Mars,  who  transforms  him  into  the  Man 
in  the  Mask. 

James  the  unforgiving,  it  is  pretended,  for- 
gave his  nephew  on  the  very  eve  of  the  fate 
he  had  ordained  for  him  ;  and  Louis  of  France 
consented  to  receive  and  lodge  him  for  life  in 
one    of    his    convenient    dungeons.      This,    of 


122         THE  MAN  IN  THE  IRON  MASK. 

course,  implies  that  it  was  not  Monmouth,  but 
some  magnanimous  substitute  for  that  prince, 
whom  Ketch,  with  the  clumsiness  of  fright, 
mangled  to  death  on  Tower  Hill,  on  the  morn- 
ing of  the  15th  of  July,  1685.  How  then  was 
the  fraud  accomplished  ?  With  the  ease  which 
.  might  be  expected,  when  a  relenting  sovereign 
and  uncle  needs  fortune's  aid.  An  officer  of 
Monmouth,  condemned  with  him  to  the  axe, 
and  strikingly  like  the  Duke,  agreed  to  per- 
sonate him  on  the  scaffold !  Prelates  not 
acquainted  with  Monmouth  were  chosen  to 
attend  his  last  moments,  and  the  execution  was 
hurried,  that  there  might  be  no  opportunity  for 
a  "  dying  speech  "  to  the  crowd,  and  no  oppor- 
tunity for  the  crowd  to  recognise  the  generous 
impostor.  The  situation  would  no  doubt  be 
an  extremely  taking  one  in  the  theatre  ;  but  it 
was  not  the  situation  on  the  morning  of 
Monmouth's  death.  The  divines  by  whom  he 
was  accompanied  to  Tower  Hill  were  the  same 


The  Duke  of  Monmouth. 
From  a  contemporary  German  Broadsheet. 


THE  EXPIATION   OF  MONMOUTH.       125 

who  had  exhorted  him  in  the  Tower  ;  and  the 
scene  on  the  scaffold,  far  from  being  hurried, 
was  so  protracted  that  it  must  have  been  an 
agony  to  the  spectators  who  had  thronged  in 
thousands  to  see  their  idol  die.  Nor  was  there 
any  unseemly  eagerness  on  the  part  of  those 
in  attendance  upon  Monmouth  to  send  their 
victim  in  silence  to  the  block  :  on  the  contrary, 
as  will  be  seen,  it  was  Monmouth  himself  who 
held  back,  when  urged  by  them  to  address  the 
soldiers. 

It  is  when  he  comes  to  the  proof  that  Saint- 
Foix,  as  may  be  imagined,  is  so  terribly  hard 
put  to  it.  He  has  not  even  stubble  for  his 
bricks.  Beyond  the  tradition  of  the  feigned 
execution  of  Monmouth  (which  was  for  many 
years  a  cherished  belief  of  our  own  west- 
country  peasants),  he  offers  only  the  vaguest 
of  rumours  and  the  idlest  of  conjectures.  He 
cites  (with  a  confession  of  little  confidence)  an 
anonymous   libel  published  in  Amsterdam  and 


126         THE  MAN  IN   THE  IRON  MASK. 

Paris,  under  the  title  Amours  de  Charles  II 
et  de  Jacques  II. ,  rois  d1  Angleterre,  wherein 
Skelton,  whom  William  of  Orange  had  re- 
moved from  the  lieutenancy  of  the  Tower,  is 
reported  as  informing  Lord  Danby  that  "on 
the  night  after  the  pretended  execution  of  the 
Duke  of  Monmouth,  the  King,  accompanied 
by  three  men,  came  himself  to  remove  him 
from  the  Tower.  They  covered  his  head  with 
a  kind  of  hood,  and  the  King  and  the  three 
mounted  with  him  into  a  coach."  Although 
this  tract  is  put  forward  by  Saint-Foix  as  one 
of  his  principal  pieces,  he  spoils  at  a  stroke 
whatever  worth  it  may  have  had  for  him  by 
the  candid  admission  that  it  should  be  classed 
with  "those  books  whose  authors  seek  only  to 
entertain  their  readers." 

His  next  witness  is  one  Nelaton,  a  surgeon, 
and  a  haunter  of  that  hot-bed  of  gossip  the 
Cafe  Procope.  which  has  but  lately  disappeared 
from  Paris.     Nelaton's  friends  of  the  Cafe  were 


THE  EXPIATION  OF  MONMOUTH       127 

familiar  with  a  story  which  he  did  not  tire  of 
rehearsing :  how  that,  being  chief  assistant  to 
a  surgeon  near  the  Porte  Saint-Antoine,  he  was 
sent  one  day  to  bleed  a  prisoner  of  the  Bastille  ; 
the  governor  took  him  into  the  chamber  of  the 
prisoner,  whose  head  was  covered  with  a  long 
towel  knotted  on  the  neck  ;  the  prisoner 
complained  of  great  pains  in  the  head  ;  he 
wore  a  dressing-gown  of  black  and  yellow, 
ornamented  with  large  fleurs  d'or — and  the 
surgeon's  assistant  perceived  by  the  prisoner's 
accent  that  he  was  an  Englishman.  How  and 
by  whom  the  Englishman  with  his  head  veiled 
in  a  towel  was  identified  with  Monmouth,  Saint- 
Foix  omits  to  say. 

From  the  Cafe  Procope  the  simple  advo- 
cate conducts  his  audience  to  the  boudoir  of 
that  light-behaved  celebrity,  the  Duchess  of 
Portsmouth.  "  Father  Tournemine  has  often 
repeated  to  me  that,  paying  a  visit  to  the 
Duchess  of  Portsmouth   with  Father  Sanders, 


128         THE  MAN  IN  THE  IRON  MASK. 

the  ancient  confessor  of  King  James,  the 
Duchess  told  them  that  she  should  always  re- 
proach the  memory  of  that  sovereign  with  the 
execution  of  the  Duke  of  Monmouth,  remem- 
bering that  Charles  II.,  in  the  hour  of  his  death 
and  on  the  point  of  receiving  the  sacrament, 
had  made  him  promise  before  the  Host  (which 
the  priest  Huldeston  *  had  secretly  conveyed), 
that,  whatever  rebellion  Monmouth  might  at- 
tempt, he  would  never  put  him  to  death. — 
'  Madame,'  answered  Father  Sanders  with 
vivacity,  'he  did  not  put  him  to  death.'  ' 

And  here,  to  conclude,  is  ■  Saint-Foix's 
crowning  proof:  On  the  rumour  in  London, 
which  gathered  as  it  rolled,  that  an  officer  re- 
sembling Monmouth  had  been  decapitated  in 
his  stead,  a  "grande  dame" — not  named  to  us — 
bribed  certain  persons — not  named  to  us — to 
open   the  coffin;  and,    "having  looked   closely 

*  Huddleston,  the  priest  who  had  saved   Charles's   life  after   the 
battle  of  Worcester,  and  who  received  his  last  confession. 


IAMKS  II  BY  V 

j         OF4&OB   KlKTG     J 


James  II. 
From  an  engraving  by  Claes  Visscher. 


THE  EXPIATION  OF  MONMOUTH.       131 

at    the    right    arm,    exclaimed — '  This    is    not 
Monmouth!'  " 

Thus,  for  the  confusion  of  later  generations, 
were  systems  of  the  Mask  erected  towards  the 
end  of  the  eighteenth  century.  This  is  the 
case,  and  the  whole  case  of  Germain-Francois 
Poullain  de  Saint-Foix.  And  this  is  to  stand 
against  the  vouchers  of  eye-witnesses  of  Mon- 
mouth's death,  the  written  and  extant  testimony 
of  the  bishops  who  stood  with  him  on  the 
scaffold,  the  detailed  despatches  sent  by  the 
French  Ambassador  in  London  to  Louis  XIV. 
in  Paris,  the  Memoirs  of  the  age,  and  the  im- 
partial conclusions  of  history,  based  on  what  is 
described  by  Macaulay  as  "  the  strongest  evi- 
dence by  which  the  fact  of  a  death  was  ever 
verified." 

.  But  let  Saint-Foix  not  be  dismissed  too 
coldly  from  us.  We  owe  him,  at  least,  a 
"homage  of  amaze."  The  callous  invention 
of  Voltaire,  the  light  deceit  of  Soulavie,  were 

9* 


132         THE  MAN  IN  THE  IRON  MASK. 

certain  of  a  hearing,  and  they  have  had  it  for 
an  age;  but  we  are  dumbly  to  praise  the  forlorn 
pugnacity  of  this  ex-officer  of  cavalry,  ready 
and  eager  to  pink  the  critic  who  would  not 
be  persuaded  that  a  barber's  assistant  had 
identified  Monmouth  through  the  folds  of  a 
towel  tied  over  his  face.  For  the  purposes  of 
fiction,  by  the  way,  this  was  a  stronger  story 
than  the  legend  of  the  twin  brother  :  it  attaches 
itself  to  the  fancy — on  the  one  hand,  an 
English  peasantry  fondly  believing  in  the 
second  coming  of  an  idolised  prince  ;  on  the 
other  hand,  the  victim  of  Sedgemoor  following 
Saint-Mars  from  one  French  dungeon  to  an- 
other, and,  after  missing  a  throne  and  escaping 
a  scaffold,  buried  in  the  murk  of  a  November 
twilight  by  two  turnkeys  of  the  Bastille.* 

On  the  evening  of  Monday,  13th  of  July, 
Monmouth  knew  that  he  was  to  die  on  Wed- 
nesday  morning.      Clarendon,    Keeper  of  the 

*  Topin. 


THE  EXPIATION  OF  MONMOUTH.       133 

Privy  Seal,  had  visited  him  in  the  Tower,  and 
had  assured  him  that  no  hope  remained.  Two 
bishops  came  next,  Turner  of  Ely  and  Ken  of 
Bath  and  Wells,  u  with  a  solemn  message  from 
the  King."  Monmouth,  bloodless  and  terror- 
stricken,  could  not  be  brought  to  resign 
himself.  If  no  pardon,  might  not  a  respite  be 
obtained  ?  The  prelates,  more  anxious  at  this 
crisis  for  his  ghostly  than  for  his  physical  wel- 
fare, exhorted  him  vainly  ;  and  were  greatly 
scandalised  by  Monmouth's  heretical  plea  of 
the  propriety,  "  in  the  sight  of  God,"  of  his 
relations  with  his  mistress,  Lady  Wentworth. 
They  left  him,  after  adjuring  him  to  spend  the 
night  in  prayer  for  spiritual  enlightenment. 

Tuesday  came  and  passed,  bringing  neither 
pardon  nor  respite  ;  and  Monmouth's  last  day 
began.  At  an  early  hour  he  parted  from  his 
wife  and  children  ;  showing,  it  is  said,  kindness 
but  no  emotion :  he  had  sunk  from  terror  to  a 
dull  despair.     Lady  Wentworth,  who,  in  a  few 


i34         THE  MAN  IN  THE  IRON  MASK. 

short  months,  was  to  follow  her  lover  to  the 
grave,  did  not  see  him. 

The  hour  of  ten  brought  the  coach  of  the 
lieutenant  of  the  Tower;  and  now,  with  Death's 
hand  upon  him,  Monmouth  grew  calm  and 
dignified.  At  his  request,  the  divines  who  had 
visited  him  in  the  Tower  went  with  him  to  the 
scaffold,  and  continued  to  exhort  him  to  the 
last  : — "  God  accept  your  repentance  !  God 
accept  your  imperfect  repentance  !  "* 

Mournful  faces  thronged  about  the  scaffold, 
and  Tower  Hill  was  "  covered  up  to  the 
chimney  tops  with  an  innumerable  multitude 
of  gazers,"  weeping,  or  silently  indignant. 
Monmouth,  as  he  passed  between  the  ranks  of 
the  guards,  saluted  them  with  a  smile  ;  and  he 
mounted  the  scaffold  without  a  tremor.  The 
crowd  hungered  for  his  words,  but  he  said  very 
little,  protesting  that  he  died  "  a  Protestant  of 
the   Church  of  England."     The  bishops  broke 

*  Macaulay. 


The  Execution  of  Monmouth  on  Tower  Hill. 
From  a  German  Broadsheet. 


THE  EXPIATION  OF  MONMOUTH.       137 

in  upon  this,  saying  that  as  a  member  of  that 
church  he  must  submit  himself  to  his  King, 
and  acknowledge  the  sinfulness  of  his  rebellion. 
Once  again  the  prelates  interfered,  when  Mon- 
mouth would  have  spoken  of  Lady  Wentworth. 
He  declared  his  sorrow  for  the  sufferings  he 
had  brought  upon  his  followers  ;  then  the 
bishops  "prayed  with  him  long  and  fervently,', 
and  Monmouth,  after  a  troubled  pause,  added 
a  slow  "  Amen  "  to  the  closing  prayer  for  the 
King.  Entreated  to  speak  to  the  soldiers,  "  I 
will  make  no  speeches,"  he  exclaimed ;  and 
addressed  himself  forthwith  to  the  executioner, 
to  whom  he  gave  six  guineas,  with  injunctions 
to  despatch  him  swiftly,  and  not  to  hack  him 
"as  you  did  my  Lord  Russell."  But  this  com- 
mand, and  possibly  also  the  long  and  painful 
scene  he  had  been  witness  of,  and  the  con- 
sciousness that  the  people  loathed  him  for  the 
dreadful  work  he  had  to  do,  unnerved  the 
headsman  utterly.      Again  and  again  the  axe 


i38         THE  MAN  IN  THE  IRON  MASK. 

fell  on  Monmouth  ;  the  wretched  Ketch  flung 
it  from  him,  took  it  up  again  at  the  sheriffs 
command,  and  finally  severed  the  head  from 
the  shoulders  with  a  knife,*  amid  screams  of 
rage  and  horror  from  the  crowd. 

The  vengeance  of  the  relentless  James, 
which  history,  nevertheless,  cannot  severely 
reproach,  was  satisfied.  Monmouth's  head  and 
body  were  gathered  up,  and  buried  privately 
the  same  day  under  the  communion  table  of 
St.  Peters  Chapel  in  the  Tower  of  London. 
An  abstract  of  his  speech  on  the  scaffold, 
published  by  his  partisans,  has  been  rejected 
as  spurious. 

*He  "severed  not  his  head  from  his  body  till  he  cut  it  off  with  a 
knife." — Verney  MSS. 


139 


CHAPTER    VI. 

Between   the  years   1754  and   1789, 

"The  King 

of  the  three  writers  in  succession  espoused 
Markets."  ^  cause  Gf  the  Due  de  Beaufort 
as  a  candidate  for  the  mask.  At  the 
respected  age  of  eighty  (for  he  was  born 
in  1674),  the  abbe  Lenglet-Dufresnoy  *  first 
advanced  this  curious  opinion,  in  his  Plan  de 
r histoire generate  et  particuliere  de  la  monarchie 
franfoise,  a  treatise  in  three  volumes  i2mo, 
published  in  1754. 

*The  abbe,  an  ingenious  student,  had  had  the  philosopher's  full  share 
of  imprisonment  under  the  absolute  monarchy,  for  he  was  twice  con- 
fined in  the  Dungeon  of  Vincennes  and  six  times  in  the  Bastille.  It 
was,  in  the  eighteenth  century  especially,  an  approved  method  of 
recognising  distinction  in  letters  ;  and  the  abbe  did  not  complain.  Far 
from  it ;  he  always  obeyed  his  summons  with  the  greatest  alacrity, 
declaring  that  prison  was  the  best  place  in  the  world  to  work  in  ; 
packed  a  few  clean  shirts  and  his  MSS.,  and  rode  off  with  the  officer 
who  had  come  for  him. 


i4o         THE  MAN  IN  THE  IRON  MASK. 

The  systeme  Beaufort  seems  to  have  been  the 
especial  snare  of  age,  for  Lagrange-Chancel,*  of 
the  Philippiques,  carried  fourscore  years  and 
three,  when,  in  1759,  in  an  article  in  Freron's 
Annee  litteraire,  he  defended  Lenglet-Du- 
fresnoy. 

The  historian  Anquetil  was  nearing  the 
seventies  when  he  lent  his  support  to  the  same 
theory  in  his  Louis  XIV.,  sa  Cour  et  le  Regent, 

1789. 

Since  the  year  of  the  Revolution,  Beaufort's 
claim  has  gone  undefended.  It  shall  engage  us 
very  briefly. 

Topin  has  noted  the  slight  comparison  that 
may  be  established  between  Beaufort  and 
Monmouth.  Both  were  royal  princes,  of 
illegitimate  origin  ;  both  had  a  career  of  ad- 
venture ;  and  both  enjoyed  the  uncommon 
privilege  of  being  fatuously  loved  by  the  people. 

*  The  satirist's  experience  of  dungeons  was  inferior  to  the  abbe's 
but  he  had  been  a  prisoner  of  Sainte- Marguerite. 


"KING    OF  THE  MARKETS."  141 

During  many  years,  the  market  people  of  Paris 
refused  as  obstinately  to  believe  in  the  death  of 
Beaufort  as  did  the  peasants  of  the  west  of 
England  in  the  death  of  Monmouth.*  Ten 
years  after  the  siege  of  Candia,  where  Beaufort 
unquestionably  lost  his  life,  the  women  of  the 
markets  were  still  having  masses  said,  not  for 
the  repose  of  his  soul,  but  for  the  prompt  return 
of  the  man  himself,  f  These  persistent  doubts, 
which,  passing  lightly  over  the  necessity  of 
proof,  are  always  so  easily  propagated,  have 
sufficed  to  place  Beaufort  at  one  era  and 
Monmouth  at  another  under  the  mask  of 
Saint-Mars's  perplexing  prisoner.     The  points 

*  These  superstitions  of  the  people  are  not  peculiar  to  any  age  or 
country.  The  death  of  Mr.  Charles  Stuart  Parnell  is,  I  should  sup- 
pose, pretty  well  attested ;  yet  there  are  those  in  Ireland  who  declare 
that  the  lost  leader  lives  and  will  re-appear.  Nay,  by  some  it  is 
maintained  that  he  has  re-appeared — and  in  a  character  somewhat 
plaguing  to  our  fighting-men.  Has  he  not  been  identified  in  print 
with  that  elusive  De  Wet  of  the  Boer  War  who  (at  the  time  of 
writing)  is  leading  our  Generals  such  a  dance  among  the  mountains 
and  passes  of  South  Africa  ! 

t  Topin  ! 


142         THE  MAN  IN  THE  IRON  MASK. 

of  resemblance  cease   here  :  the   characters   of 
the  two  men  were  totally  dissimilar. 

Monmouth  breathed  the  air  of  Courts  as  a 
prince  should  do.  Beaufort,  not  less  a  prince,  • 
floundered  like  a  clown  in  the  royal  circle — the 
Tony  Lumpkin  of  Versailles.  Grandson  of 
Henri  IV.  and  Gabrielle  d'Estrees  (his  father 
was  Cesar  de  Vendome),  Beaufort  came  up 
from  the  country  to  the  Court,  a  raw,  handsome 
braggart,  with  one  hand  incessantly  on  his  hip, 
and  the  other  twirling  up  his  moustaches  ;  his 
conversation  a  ludicrous  failure  to  mix  the  slang 
of  the  stable  and  the  hunting-field,  which  was 
his  proper  language,  with  the  jargon  of  the 
elegants,  which  was  exotic  to  him.  He  got  so 
far  as  to  introduce  a  vocabulary  of  his  own, 
which  had  no  imitators,  and  which  Cardinal  de 
Retz  declared  would  have  melted  Cato  into  tears. 
But  the  stentorian,  lubberly  Duke  had  his 
revenge  at  the  wars,  where  his  idiosyncrasies 
were  "  not  noticed   in  him  "  ;  and   he  returned 


"KING    OF  THE  MARKETS."  143 

from  Arras  with  a  reputation  for  prowess  in  the 
field  which  rallied  around  him  the  courtiers  by 
whom  he  had  before  been  flouted. 

Indeed,  he  was  presently  in  the  way  to 
become  a  strong  man  in  the  kingdom  ;  for,  on 
the  eve  of  the  death  of  Louis  XIII.,  we  find 
Anne  of  Austria  desirous  of  making  him  the 
guardian  of  her  son,  as  "  the  most  honest  man 
in  France."  It  was  not  a  sagacious  choice,  for 
"the  most  honest  man"  was  in  truth  one  of  the 
vainest,  most  unstable,  and  most  incompetent. 
In  no  long  time  he  is  observed  talking  very 
loudly  in  the  rebellious  ranks  of  the  Fronde, 
leader  of  the  ridiculous  party  whose  preten- 
sions obtained  for  them  the  nickname  of  Les 
Importants.  A  truculent,  inglorious  figure  in 
the  Fronde,  he  gave  trouble  enough  to  Mazarin 
to  make  it  worth  the  minister's  while  to  arrest 
him  ;  he  was  confined  for  a  time  in  the  State 
prison  of  Vincennes,  and  the  Importants  were 
dispersed. 


144         THE  MAN  IN  THE  IRON  MASK. 

But  Beaufort,  for  all  his  ambition,  had  no 
singleness  or  fixity  of  purpose  ;  he  severed  the 
ties  of  party  as  easily  as  he  formed  them,  and 
the  Fronde  knew  him  no  more.  After  a 
period  of  idle  opposition  to  the  young  king,  he 
was  sent  into  banishment ;  and  returned  to  be 
reconciled  to  his  old  enemy,  Mazarin.  At  no 
time  was  Beaufort  a  political  adversary  to  be 
very  seriously  reckoned  with.  He  had  no 
real  knowledge  of  affairs  ;  he  could  act  violently 
at  any  time,  but  with  judgment  at  no  time  ;  and, 
wanting  the  ability  to  choose  a  course  for 
himself  in  politics,  he  was  pushed  into  one 
course  and  another  by  those  whom  he  fancied 
he  was  leading  by  the  ear. 

Outside  the  sphere  of  the  populace  of  Paris 
— indeed,  it  was  narrower ;  it  was  the  sphere 
of  the  markets — Beaufort  did  not  possess  the 
slightest  influence  ;  and  his  authority  over  these 
people,  whom  he  bullied  and  joked  with  in 
their  own  argot,  was    much    more    that    of    a 


"KING    OF  THE  MARKETS."  145 

popular  hero  than  of  a  political  leader.  He 
called  the  market  people  his  subjects,  and  they 
in  return  dubbed  him  their  king :  he  was  the 
King  of  the  Markets.  The  porters  and  fish- 
wives followed  him  in  the  streets,  proud  beyond 
measure  of  their  debonnaire  prince,  who  had 
condescended  to  choose  his  town  house  in  the 
most  populous  quarter  of  Paris,*  who  would 
mount  on  a  stone  to  hold  an  argument,  or  show 
off  his  strength  in  a  public  brawl. 

On  a  sudden,  however,  the  factious  Beaufort 
ranged  himself  and  grew  submissive.  In  1663, 
being  then  at  the  sane  age  of  forty-seven,  he 
received  an  appointment  as  Admiral,  in 
succession  to  his  father.  Lagrange-Chancel 
would  have  his  readers  believe  that  Beaufort 
made  use  of  this  office  to  traverse  the  designs 
of  Colbert,  controlling  the  navy  ;  but  this  proves 
quite  inexact.  The  opposition  to  the  throne 
was    exhausted    at    this    time ;     the    passions 

*  Rue  Quincampoix. 

IO 


146         THE  MAN  IN  THE  IRON  MASK. 

kindled  during  the  Fronde  were  extinguished ; 
submission  to  authority  had  become  or  was 
becoming  the  policy  of  those  princes  and  nobles 
erstwhile  the  most  restless  and  intractable. 
"  The  Prince  de  Conti  married  the  niece  of 
Mazarin  ;  the  great  Conde  received  from  the 
King  with  gratitude  the  Order  of  the  Saint- 
Esprit"  ;  and  Beaufort,  transformed  into  an 
Admiral,  grew  mild  and  malleable.  On  the 
quarter-deck,  it  is  true,  he  swore  and 
swaggered  as  of  old,  and  was  quite  the  pirate 
in  the  treatment  of  his  officers,  whom  he  was 
for  ever  threatening  to  pitch  into  the  sea ; 
but  in  his  naval  expeditions  he  endured  cheer- 
fully and  with  docility  the  authority  of  the 
expert  whom  Colbert  had  placed  beside  him.# 
It  was  his  subordinates  only  who  felt  the 
natural  violence  of  his  character  ;  the  Court 
had  nothing  to  fear  from  him.  Far  from 
choosing   even  to   pretend  himself  dangerous, 

*  Relation  de  Gigdiyfaite  au  Roi  par  M.  de  Gadagne,  lieutenant-gdneral. 


FRANCOIS  DE  VANDO, 


Due  de  Beaufort  Pair  dcFv.uice.Poi 


Francis  de  Vendome,  "  Roi  des  Halles.' 
From  a  contemporary  print. 


"KING    OF  THE  MARKETS:'  149 

Beaufort  had  gone  over,  with  characteristic 
ostentation,  to  the  side  of  the  young  King  and 
his  advisers  ;  and  had  he  pretended  danger, 
his  gifts  as  a  conspirator  were  too  mediocre 
to  excite  alarm.  At  his  proudest  and  most 
powerful,  he  was  no  more  than  the  King  of  the 
Markets — le  Roi  des  Halles. 

The  hypothesis  which  lifts  Beaufort  to  the 
dignity  of  the  Iron  Mask  rests  on  the 
assumption  that  his  popularity  threatened  the 
safety  of  the  State.  He  was  given,  in  1669, 
the  command  of  the  expedition  to  Candia,  to 
the  end,  it  was  said,  that  he  should  return 
no  more.  He  did  not,  it  was  said,  die  at 
Candia,  as  history  has  affirmed :  from  the 
midst  of  the  fleet,  and  in  the  presence  of  the 
army,  he  was  adroitly  whisked  away,  and 
conveyed  into  the  keeping  of  Saint- Mars,  at 
Sainte-Marguerite.  This  is  the  story  as  we 
have  it  from  Lenglet-Dufresnoy,  Lagrange- 
Chancel,     and    Anquetil — three    savants    who 


VSo         THE  MAN  IN  THE  IRON  MASK. 

took  the  field  at  an  age  not  usually  nimble 
in  critical  speculation  or  research.  If,  however, 
the  facts  brought  forward  as  to  Beaufort's 
popularity  (considered  as  a  source  of  danger  to 
the  State)  possess  any  value,  Louis  XIV.,  it 
is  clear,  had  not  a  reason  in  the  world  for 
ridding  himself  of  the  Duke.  But  Beaufort 
did  certainly  disappear  at  the  siege  of  Candia. 
Was  he  killed  there,  or  was  he  carried  thence 
into  captivity  ?  We  have  no  proof  whatever 
that  he  was  carried  away.  Have  we,  then,  the 
proofs  of  his  death  ? 

On  the  5th  of  June,  1669,  the  expedition 
for  the  relief  of  Candia,  besieged  by  the 
Turks,  set  out  from  Toulon,  with  Beaufort 
in  command  ;  and  on  the  morning  of  the 
19th  the  western  point  of  the  island  was 
sighted.  In  the  evening,  under  cover  of 
darkness,  Beaufort,  with  Navailles  (general 
of  the  7,000  French  troops  who  had  sailed 
with      the       fleet),      made      for      the      shore 


"KING   OF  THE  MARKETS."  151 

with  muffled  oars,  and  succeeded  in  reach- 
ing the  port.  They  soon  convinced  them- 
selves of  the  desperate  condition  of  the 
Venetian  defenders  of  the  place.  In  fact, 
of  the  14,000  whom  the  ambassador  of  the 
Venetian  Republic  had  reported  to  be  within 
the  walls,  there  were  not  above  6,000  who 
could  be  relied  upon  as  combatants  ;  and 
most  of  these  had  lost  heart  during  a  defence 
which  was  now  regarded  as  hopeless. 

A  council  of  war  was  held  on  the  20th, 
when  Beaufort,  Navailles,  the  Captain-General 
of  the  Venetians,  and  the  other  officers  who 
took  part  in  it,  were  unanimously  agreed 
that  a  resolute  sortie  offered  the  sole  pros- 
pect of  success.  The  final  plan  of  this  was 
settled  on  the  evening  of  the  24th,  and  its 
execution  resolved  upon  for  midnight  of  the 
25th.  By  that  hour,  the  whole  of  the 
French  troops  had  been  safely  brought  on 
shore.       The    one    hope    lay    in    taking    com- 


152         THE  MAN  IN  THE  IRON  MASK. 

pletely  by  surprise  the  swarming  legions  of 
the  Turks.  The  troops  of  the  Venetians, 
useless  at  present  within  their  bastions,  were 
not  advised  of  the  project  of  attack  until 
one  o'clock  on  the  morning  of  the  26th, 
when,  roused  from  sleep  by  their  officers, 
they  were  hurried  in  silence  to  their  posts. 

The  French  foot  were  marshalled  on  the 
esplanade,  where  as  the  hour  of  two  sounded 
from  the  church  of  Saint-Marc,  they  were 
joined  by  two  hundred  of  the  King's 
musketeers  and  five  companies  of  cavalry. 
Navailles  and  his  men  moved  off  towards 
the  right,  Beaufort  directing  his  march 
upon  the  left :  the  two  corps  were  to  re-unite 
at  a  signal  given  by  Navailles.  Arrived 
within  a  little  space  of  the  enemy,  Beaufort 
made  his  troops  lie  down  ;  while  Navailles, 
who  had  a  larger  distance  to  cover,  con- 
tinued his  stealthy  advance.  Some  fifty 
minutes    before   the  dawn,   the  drums    of  the 


"KING    OF  THE  MARKETS."  153 

Turks    startled    the    silence  ;    but    a    few    of 
Beaufort's   marines,  creeping  up  to  the  camp,  ' 
returned   to   say  that  the  enemy  were  merely 
beating    the    reveille,    and    were   still    in    total 
ignorance   of  their  danger 

Navailles  had  got  unimpeded  to  the  ex- 
treme right,  where  he  halted  until  his  reserve 
and  the  rear  guard  had  come  up.  Beaufort, 
with  growing  impatience,  was  waiting  for 
the  signal,  when,  suddenly,  a  roar  of  mus- 
ketry burst  from  the  distant  right,  and  the 
red  fire  glowed  over  the  camp  of  the  Turks. 
In  an  instant,  Beaufort  was  on  his  feet,  his 
men  with  him  ;  the  charge  was  sounded  ;  and, 
while  the  day  had  not  yet  dawned,  the  troops 
leaped  blindly  to  the  assault.  The  Turkish  en- 
trenchments were  almost  immediately  stormed  ; 
the  Turks,  panic-stricken,  fired  off  their  pieces 
and  fled,  many  casting  themselves  headlong 
into  the  sea.  It  seemed  as  though  victory  were 
already  with  the  French  ;  but  just  then  a  vast 


154         THE  MAN  IN  THE  IRON  MASK. 

sheet  of  flame  reared  itself  into  the  night,  and 
a  terrifying  explosion  shook  the  field.  Beau- 
fort's troops  and  ,  marines,  not  knowing  what 
had  happened,  halted  in  alarm  ;  and  scarcely 
obeyed  the  rallying  voice  of  their  leader. 

Far  other  were  the  effects  which  that 
catastrophe  had  produced  among  the  soldiers 
of  Dampierre,  who  headed  the  detachment 
commanded  by  Navailles.  A  magazine  con- 
taining twenty-five  thousand-weight  of  powder 
had  exploded,  swallowing  an  entire  battalion 
of  the  French  guards,  and  spreading  panic 
on  every  side.  The  troops,  persuaded  that 
the  whole  field  was  sown  with  mines,  threw 
away  their  arms,  and  ran  in  all  direc- 
tions. In  the  semi-darkness  of  that  hour 
'twixt  night  and  morning,  Beaufort's  marines, 
meeting  the  flying  troops  of  Dampierre  and 
Navailles,  fell  on  them  as  foes ;  and  an  indis- 
criminate and  indescribable  slaughter  began. 
In    vain     did    Beaufort,    himself    abandoned, 


"KING   OF  THE  MARKETS."  155 

essay  to  undo  that  fatal  error.  Covered  with 
blood,  his  horse  wounded,  he  threw  himself 
amid  the  terrified  Frenchmen,  crying:  "A  moi, 
mes  enfants  !  Je  suis  votre  amiral.  Ralliez- 
vous  pres  de  moi !  "  Brave,  but  futile  effort  I 
The  dawn  was  growing,  and  the  Turks  realised 
that  they  were  not  pursued.  Recovering  their 
ranks  as  quickly  as  they  had  broken  them 
they  became  in  their  turn  the  assailants ;  and, 
shouting  the  Prophet's  name,  they  chased  the 
French  to  the  gates  of  Candia. 

Under  shelter  of  the  ramparts,  the  French 
took  a  breathing  space,  and  roughly  summed 
their  losses.  Beaufort  was  missing.  His 
death  was  considered  certain  by  the  army. 
He  had  been  seen  last,  streaked  with  blood, 
and  galloping  on  a  wounded  horse  through 
that  dense  melee  in  which  Frenchmen  were 
killing  Frenchmen  as  Turks.  Any  French- 
man who  died  obscurely  on  that  half-lighted 
field   might    easily    have   been    posed    by   his 


156         THE  MAN  IN  THE  IRON  MASK. 

partisans  as  the  hero  of  a  mystery.  But 
no  one  raises  a  hint  of  foul  play  in  the  case 
of  Beaufort.  The  first  despatch  that  reaches 
Colbert,  from  his  brother  Colbert  de 
Maulevrier,  signalises  Beaufort's  death  as  the 
most  deplorable  result  of  the  battle.*  And 
the  army  was  not  satisfied  with  the  know- 
ledge that  the  leader  of  the  expedition 
was  missing.  Was  it  possible  the  Turks 
had  taken  him  ?  A  white  flag  was  sent 
into  the  Turkish  lines,  but  Beaufort  was  not 
among  the  prisoners.  It  was  then  held  for 
certain  that  he  had  fallen,  an  easy  mark 
on  horseback,  among  the  lost  files  of  the 
French  whose  death  was  never  questioned  ; 
and  not  a  hint  or  a  line  that  has  come 
down  to  posterity  has  disturbed   this  belief. 

The    dates    alone     should    suffice    to     dis- 
prove   the    case    of    Lenglet-Dufresnoy    and 

*  Manuscrits  de  la  Bibliotheque  impe'riale,  papiers  Colbert  :  cited  by 
Topin. 


"KING    OF  THE  MARKETS:'  157 

his  two  adherents.  Was  the  Man  in  the 
Mask  a  nonagenarian  ?  Beaufort  was  born 
in  16 1 6,  and  the  prisoner  of  Saint-Mars 
died  in  the  Bastille  in  1703.  And  how 
does  Saint-Mars  receive  Beaufort  a  prisoner 
at  Sainte-Marguerite  in  1669 — eighteen  years 
before  he  goes  to  that  fortress  ? 


'58 


CHAPTER    VII. 

Endless    indeed   has   been  the   per- 

The  Tragedy 

of  Nicolas  verse  ingenuity  of  writers  on  the 
pouquet.  subject  of  the  Iron  Mask.  That 
Nicolas  Fouquet,  Louis  XIV.'s  overweening 
Superintendent  of  Finance,  died  at  Pignerol, 
March  23,  1680,  is  an  historical  fact  which 
does  not  admit  of  question  or  of  doubt ; 
yet  Paul  Lacroix  (the  bibliophile  Jacob,  a 
voluminous  and  entertaining  author),  not  con- 
tent with  the  nineteen  years  of  captivity 
which  fate  decreed  the  afflicted  Surintendant, 
sentenced  him  to  twenty-three  more  as  the 
Man  in  the  Iron  Mask. 

Not   that  this  folly  was  quite  original   with 
the    bibliophile.       It    glimmered    first    in    an 


TRAGEDY  OF  NICOLAS  FOUQUET.      159 

article  published,  in  1789,  in  a  journal  called 
Loisirs  dun  patriot*  frangais  ;  I  republished 
afterwards  as  a  pamphlet,  and  sold  to  a 
confiding  public  under  the  title,  V Homme  au 
masque  de  fer,  dcvoile  dapres  une  note 
trouvee  dans  les  papiers  de  la  Bastille.  The 
remarkable  "  note  found  among  the  papers 
of  the  Bastille  "  has  long  gone  to  keep  com- 
pany with  the  legend  of  the  silver  plate 
and  the  linen  shirt  ;  for  neither  Paul  Lacroix 
nor  anyone  else  succeeded  in  proving  its 
existence,  and  the  bibliophile  prudently 
abstains  from  giving  it  a  place  of  honour 
among  his  documents.  Here  it  is,  for  the 
entertainment  of  the  curious : — Fouquet, 
arriving  from  the  Isles  of  Saint e- Marguerite 
in  an  iron  mask.  The  note  carried  the 
good  round  number,  64,389,000,  and  a  double 
signature — the  letters  XXX  superposed 
on  the  name  Kersadiou.  The  author  of  the 
jest    elected   to  remain  in  an    obscurity  which 


160         THE  MAN  IN  THE  IRON  MASK. 

is  and  always  has  been  destitute  of  interest. 
The  erudition  and  inexhaustible  versatility  of 
Lacroix,  from  whose  pen  we  have  a  little 
library  of  volumes  on  the  curiosities  of  French 
history,  were  idly  and  unworthily  employed  in 
reviving,  in  i84o,#  a  fable  which  had  died  in 
the  hour  of  its  birth,  sixty  years  earlier. 

The  downfall,  degradation,  punishment,  and 
death  of  Fouquet  make  an  episode  as  striking 
and  poignant  as  any  in  the  reign  of  Louis  XIV. 
He  was  at  his  height  of  power,  the  most  daz- 
zling figure  at  the  Court,  just  when  the  King,  at 
the  age  of  twenty-three,  had  resolved  to  rule 
France  alone.  At  the  first  Council  he  held 
after  the  death  of  Mazarin,  Louis  had  said : 
"  I  shall  be  my  own  Prime  Minister  in 
future  "  ;  f  and  the  Court,  incredulous  at  first, 
soon  realised  that  the  King  meant  to  keep 
his  word.     Already  devoted    to   pleasure   and 

*  V Homme  an  masque  defer.   (Paris,  Mayen,  1840,  in  8vo). 
t  "y<?  serai  a  Vavenir  mou  premier  ministre.'''' 


TRAGEDY  OF  NICOLAS  FOUQUET.      161 

the    chase,    he    began    now    to    show    himself 

energetic  and   vigorous    in    affairs  ;    and    from 

this    time    forward,    during    the    ensuing    fifty 

years,    he    devoted    five    hours    a   day    to    the 

business   of  the   State.      So  long  as   Fouquet 

was  indispensable,    Louis  retained   him    in  his 

post  ;    and    that   over-confident,    rash    minister 

promised   himself  the    Chancellorship  and  the 

real  government  of  France.      But,  though  he 

would  not  see  it,  and  was  deaf  to  the  warnings 

that    reached    him,    Fouquet    was    very    soon 

upon  the  brink  of  ruin.     The  fortune  he  had 

amassed    out    of  the    taxes    was    probably    at 

this    time   the    most    considerable    in     France. 

Colbert,     however    (Fouquet's    arch    enemy), 

conveyed  to  the  King  the  secret  of  a  hoard  of 

nearly  eighteen   millions  of  ready  money,   left 

by  Mazarin.     Search  was  made  and  the  money 

found  ;    and    Louis,    independent    of    Fouquet 

from  that  moment,  resolved  forthwith  upon  his 

overthrow.     Along   with    the    King's    incense- 

ii 


1 62         THE  MAN  IN  THE  IRON  MASK. 

ment  went  a  certain  fear  of  the  dazzling  and 
fascinating  minister,  who  was  capable,  as  Louis 
imagined,  of  impeding  if  not  of  thwarting  his 
schemes  for  the  government  of  France  after  his 
own  manner.  During  a  summer  of  splendid 
fetes  at  Fontainebleau,  to  which  the  opulence 
of  Fouquet  contributed,  the  plot  against  him 
was  elaborated  by  Louis,  whose  natural  gift 
of  dissimulation  had  ripened  under  Mazarin's 
tuition.  Had  Fouquet  been  merely  Superin- 
tendent of  Finance,  he  could  have  been 
attacked  and  destroyed  at  once ;  but  as 
Procureur- General  he  enjoyed  the  protection 
of  the  Parlement.  The  King  and  Colbert 
had  recourse  to  a  stratagem  to  induce  him 
to  resign  his  office  of  Procureur-General ; 
he  did  so,  or  rather  he  sold  the  office  ;  and 
Louis  exclaimed  exultingly  :  "  Tout  va  bien  ; 
il  s'enterre  de  lui-meme  !  "  *  Stripped  of  the 
shield   of  the   Parlement,   Fouquet  was  at  the 

*  "  Good  !  He's  digging  his  own  grave." 


TRAGEDY  OF  NICOLAS  FOUQUET.      163 

King's  mercy,  and  on  the  5th  of  September, 
1 66 1,  the  blow  fell.  He  was  arrested  in  the 
Place  de  la  Cathedrale  at  Nantes,  whither  Louis 
had  gone  to  meet  the  Estates  of  Brittany. 

11  The  formation  of  a  special  court  to  try 
him,  the  length  of  his  trial,  which  lasted  three 
years,  the  obvious  falseness  of  most  of  the 
charges,  the  influence  exercised  by  Louis  over 
the  judges,  the  courage  and  ability  shown  by 
the  prisoner,  his  intimate  relations  with  all 
the  ablest  men  of  the  day,  his  numerous  and 
varied  interests,  all  combined  to  focus  the 
interest  and  the  sympathy  of  France  upon 
Nicolas  Fouquet."  * 

Sympathy  rose  higher  when  it  became 
evident  that  Louis  had  determined  to  ob- 
tain a  conviction  at  any  cost.  It  was  "a 
seventeenth-century  Warren  Hastings  trial." 
Fouquet  was  accused  of  "  corruption  and 
dishonesty  in  the  management  of  the  finances, 

*  Hassan's  "Louis  XIV." 

II* 


1 64         THE  MAN  IN  THE  IRON  MASK. 

of  appropriating  to  himself  public  money,  of 
preparing  to  revive  civil  war  in  France,  and 
for  that  purpose  of  fortifying  Belle-isle."  The 
accusation  of  treason  was  ridiculous,  but  the 
charges  of  malversation  were  easily  estab- 
lished. The  truth  is  that,  with  rare  intervals 
of  sound  administration,  the  financial  system 
was  rotten  and  immoral  throughout  the  whole 
period  of  the  monarchy,  and  later.  Mazarin 
might  have  been  impeached  on  this  count  as 
justly  as  Fouquet,  who  was  not  more  un- 
scrupulous than  the  majority  of  his  contem- 
poraries in  the  handling  of  public  money.  But 
Fouquet  fell,  as  Louis  intended  he  should 
fall.  Nor  was  it  enough  for  Louis  to  have 
broken  and  dishonoured  him  :  the  King's 
treatment  of  the  sentence  decreed  by  the 
judges  was  an  anticipation  of  the  chastisement 
with  which,  eighteen  years  later,  he  was  to 
visit  the  Iron  Mask.  The  judges  were  in 
favour    of  banishment  ;    but    the   young    sove- 


TRAGEDY  OF  NICOLAS  FOUQUET.      165 

reign,  just  entering  upon  the  splendid  heritage 
of  France,  holding  in  his  hands  a  power 
tremendous  enough  to  inspire  generosity,  and 
at  an  age  when  the  hey-day  in  the  blood 
should  cry  pity  upon  all  misfortune,  deliberately 
changed  the  sentence  into  one  of  perpetual 
imprisonment.  Fouquet  the  magnificent, 
whose  lordly  motto  had  been,  Quo  non 
Ascendam !  Whither  may  I  not  ?7tount ! 
sank  into  the  shades  of  a  dungeon.  Once 
lodged  in  Pignerol,  he  never  quitted  it. 

The  system  of  Lacroix  rests  almost  entirely 
on  the  assumption — a  perfectly  gratuitous  one 
— that  Fouquet's  death  at  Pignerol  was 
simulated.  Thus,  after  leaving  his  victim  in 
prison  for  nearly  twenty  years,  and  after 
having,  towards  the  close  of  that  period, 
eased  his  bonds  considerably,  Louis,  for  some 
cryptic  reason  which  history  has  not  pene- 
trated to  this  day,  suddenly  gives  him  out 
as  dead,   separates  him    from    the    rest   of  the 


166         THE  MAN  IN  THE  IRON  MASK. 

world,  binds  a  mask  over  his  features,  and 
holds  him  in  this  double  captivity  twenty- 
three  years  longer.  The  death  of  Fouquet 
in  1680,  says  Lacroix,  "  is  far  from  being 
certain."     Let  us  see. 

And  first  it  is  to  be  observed  that  the 
captivity  of  Fouquet  was  for  many  years  an 
extremely  rigorous  one.  He  endured  it  with 
great  fortitude,  spending  much  time  in  the 
study  of  works  of  devotion,  and  committing 
his  thoughts  to  paper  when  he  could  get 
leave  to  write.  Between  the  years  1665  and 
1672,  says  Topin,  all  communication  with 
the  outer  world  was  forbidden  him ;  he 
might  not  even  send  a  message  to  his  family. 
All  at  once  the  King  begins  to  soften  a  little. 
At  first,  in  1672,  a  rare  letter  is  permitted; 
then  a  more  regular  correspondence,  and 
freedom  of  intercourse  with  other  captives 
and  inmates  of  the  fortress  ;  finally,  there  is 
the  visit    and    prolonged  stay   at    Pignerol    of 


Nicolas  Fouquet. 
From  an  engraving  by  C.  Mel  Ian. 


TRAGEDY   OF  NICOLAS  FOUQUET.      169 

certain  members  of  Fouquet's  family.  The 
despatches  are  open. 

On  the  20th  of  January,  1679,  the  minister 
Louvois  wrote  to  Saint- Mars  : — 

"  His  Majesty  is  quite  willing  [trouve  bon] 
that  M.  Fouquet  and  M.  de  Lauzun  *  should 
see  each  other  as  often  as  they  please.  They 
may,  if  they  choose,  pass  the  day  together, 
and  take  their  meals  together.  You  are  at 
liberty  to  join  them.  They  may  have  leave 
to  exercise  at  all  times,  not  only  within  the 
limits  of  the  dungeon,  but  in  any  part  of  the 
citadel.  You  can  take  them  to  dine  with 
Madame  de  Saint- Mars  as  often  as  you  like, 
even  when  strangers  or  officers  of  the  town 
are  present  .  .  .  .  His  Majesty  accords 
permission  to  the  officers  of  the  citadel  to 
visit    your   prisoners   and    pass    the    morning 

*  De  Lauzun,  a  captain  in  the  King's  guards,  the  hero  of  many 
extraordinary  adventures,  and  one  of  the  most  impudent  little  cox- 
combs in  France,  was  ten  years  in  prison  at  Pignerol.  He  had  already 
had  a  taste  of  the  Bastille,  for  an  insolent  speech  to  Louis  XIV. 


170         THE  MAN  IN  THE  IRON  MASK. 

or  afternoon  with  them,  should  they  wish  it, 
one    of     your     own    officers    being     present. 

With   regard    to    the    governor 

and  residents  of  the  town,  you  will  act  as  you 
think  proper  in  respect  of  visits  to  be  paid 
by  them." 

Still  more  important  and  explicit  is  the 
minister's  letter  of  the   ioth  of  May: — 

"  The  King,  having  granted  permission  to 
Madame  Fouquet,  her  children,  and  M. 
Fouquet  of  Mezieres,*  to  visit  M.  Fouquet 
at  Pignerol,  I  have  his  Majesty's  command  to 
advise  you  of  the  same,  and  further  to  inform 
you  that  Madame  Fouquet  is  to  have  the 
fullest  liberty  of  intercourse  with  her  husband, 
and  even,  should  she  desire  it,  to  take  up  her 
residence  in  M.  Fouquet's  apartment.  As 
regards  the  children  and  M.  Fouquet's 
brother,  his  Majesty  desires  that  they  may 
be  with  him  as   much  as  they  please,  without 

*  Fouquet's  brother. 


TRAGEDY  OF  NICOLAS  FOUQUET.      171 

the  presence  of  any  of  your  officers.  The 
same  liberty  is  to  be  accorded  to  Salvert, 
Madame  Fouquet's  man  of  business.  You 
may  give  leave  also  to  the  senior  officers  of 
the  town  garrison  and  of  the  citadel  to  visit 
your  prisoners." 

In  the  month  of  June,  Louvois  authorises 
the  visit  of  certain  "  dames  de  qualite  " 
of  Turin.  In  November  he  permits  another 
brother  of  Fouquet  to  take  up  his  residence 
at  Pignerol  for  twenty-four  months,  and  to  see 
the  prisoner  "  as  often  as  he  pleases  during 
that  period." 

Lastly,  on  the  18th  of  December,  Fouquet's 
daughter  has  leave  to  lodge  in  the  dungeon 
itself,  in  a  chamber  divided  only  by  the  dis- 
tance of  a  single  step  from  her  father's. 

And  it  is  in  these  circumstances,  in  the 
immediate  presence  of  a  numerous  family — 
under  the  very  eyes,  we  may  say,  of  a  wife, 
a   son,   a    daughter,    and    two    brothers — with 


172         THE  MAN  IN  THE  IRON  MASK. 

Madame's  man  of  affairs  at  hand,  with 
officers  and  people  of  the  town  and  garrison 
coming  and  going  as  they  list,  that  Paul 
Lacroix  has  the  temerity  to  speak  of  a 
simulated  death  of  Fouquet,  the  23rd  of  March, 
1680!  The  time  was  not  exactly  in  joint  for 
a  plot  of  that  sort.  Is  it  a  schemer  so  astute 
as  Louis  XIV.  (at  this  date  forty-two  years  of 
age)  who  sends  Fouquet's  whole  family  to  join 
him  at  Pignerol,  gives  his  wife  leave  to  share 
his  chamber,  lodges  his  daughter  within  a 
brick  of  him,  and  throws  the  prisoner's  doors 
open  to  any  visitors  he  may  choose  to 
receive,  at  the  precise  hour  when  his  Majesty 
is  planning  to  report  him  dead,  and  to  thrust 
him  thereupon  into  greater  secrecy  than  ever  ? 
It  is  childish.  And  for  what  reason,  this 
pretended  death  and  this  prolongation  of 
Fouquet's  captivity  by  three-and-twenty  years  ? 
The  bibliophile  whispers  us  of  some  secret  of 
State   of  which  Fouquet  is   the  dreaded  pos- 


TRAGEDY  OF  NICOLAS  BOUQUET,      173 

sessor.  So  !  And  this  prisoner  with  the  un- 
speakable secret  is  suddenly  given  the  liberty 
of  the  citadel,  he  is  set  in  the  midst  of  his 
family,  he  is  suffered,  nay  almost  invited, 
to  blab  it  in  the  ears  of  all  the  gossips  of 
Pignerol  who  may  come  and  call  on  him  and 
stay  to  dinner  just  as  often  as  he  has  a  mind 
to  company  ?  M.  Lacroix,  this  was  rating 
rather  cheaply  the  intellects  of  Louis  XIV.  ! 

But  the  case  against  the  bibliophile  is  not 
quite  finished.  Other  documents  ©f  State, 
together  with  letters  of  the  family,  allow  us 
to  follow  Fouquet  for  a  space  after  his  death 
from  apoplexy  on  the  23rd  of  March,  1680. 
Saint-Mars  sent  immediately  to  Louvois.  The 
family  of  Fouquet  communicated  the  tidings 
to  their  friends,  and  wrote  to  the  minister 
soliciting  the  King's  permission  to  lay  him 
in  their  vault  in  Paris.  Madame  de  Sevigne 
writes  to  her  daughter  on  the  3rd  of  April  : 
"  Poor    M.     Fouquet    is    dead  ;     I     am    very 


174         THE  MAN  IN  THE  IRON  MASK. 

sorry."  And  on  the  5th,  "  If  I  were  in  the 
counsels  of  M.  Fouquet's  family,  I  would  see 
that  they  did  not  send  his  poor  body  on  a 
journey,  as  I  hear  they  propose  to  do." 
On  the  6th  of  April,  the  Gazette  de  France 
makes  the  following  announcement  :  "  We 
learn  from  Pignerol  that  the  sieur  Fouquet 
has  died  there  from  apoplexy." 

On  the  8th  of  the  month  Louvois  replied 
to  Saint-Mars,  to  the  effect  that  he  had  in- 
formed the  King  of  Fouquet's  death,  and  that 
the  King  wished  Fouquet's  chamber  to  be 
prepared  for  Lauzun.  His  Majesty  sends 
no  message  of  regret.  On  the  same  day 
the  Minister  wrote  to  Fouquet's  son,  the 
Comte  de  Vaux  : — 

"  Monsieur, — 

"  I  am  in  receipt  of  your  letter 
of  the  29th  of  last  month.  I  have  spoken 
to  the   King    concerning  the  request   of  your 


TRAGEDY   OF  NICOLAS  FOUQUET.      175 

mother  to  remove  the  body  of  the  late  M. 
Fouquet  from  Pignerol.  Rest  assured  there 
will  be  no  difficulty  about  that  ;  his  Majesty, 
has  given  the  necessary  orders." 

At  the  same  time  Saint-Mars  received  his 
instructions : — 

v"  The  King  commands  me  to  inform  you 
that  his  Majesty  consents  to  your  delivery 
of  the  body  of  the  late  M.  Fouquet  to  his 
widow,  to  be  transported  whither  it  may 
please  her." 

The  family  possessed  a  vault  in  the  chapel 
of  Saint-Frangois  de  Sales,  in  the  church  of 
the  convent  of  the  Dames  de  Sainte- Marie, 
grande  rue  Saint-Antoine,  Paris  ;  but  it  was 
not  until  the  23rd  of  March  of  the  year 
following,  1 68 1,  that  the  body  of  Fouquet 
was  carried  and  deposited  there.  In  the 
"  registres  mortuaires  "  of  the  church  the 
record  may  be    read  : — 


176         THE  MAN  IN  THE  IRON  MASK. 

"  Le  23  Mars  1681,  fut  inhume  dans 
notre  eglise,  en  la  chapelle  de  Saint-Fran- 
cois de  Sales,  messire  Nicolas  Foucquet,  qui 
fut  eleve  a  tous  les  degres  d'honneur  de  la 
magistrature,  conseiller  au  parlement,  mattre 
des  requestres,  procureur  general,  surintendant 
de£  finances,  et  ministre  d'Estat.'' 

Thus  humbly,  by  leave  of  the  King,  whose 
anger  had  undone  and  destroyed  him,  was 
Fouquet  the  magnificent  inurned  in  the 
church  of  the  Ladies  of  Saint  Mary,  along- 
side the  dust  of  his  father. 

The  principal  hypotheses — most  of  them, 
as  the  reader  has  perceived,  mere  "  springes 
to  catch  woodcocks  " — have  now  been  sub- 
mitted to  analysis.  Francois  Ravaisson, 
keeper  of  the  Arsenal  Library,  whose  task  of 
classifying  the  Archives  of  the  Bastille  has 
since  his  death  been  continued  by  M. 
Funck-Brentano,    "  believed    for    a    moment " 


TRAGEDY  OF  NICOLAS  FOUQUET.       177 

(says  his  successor)  "  that  the  celebrated 
prisoner  might  have  been  the  young  Count 
de  Ke>oualze  who  had  fought  at  Candia 
under  the  orders  of  Admiral  de  Beaufort. 
Ravaisson  put  forth  his  theory  with  much 
hesitation,  and  as,  in  the  sequel,  he  was  him- 
self led  to  abandon  it,  we  need  not  dwell 
any  longer  upon  it." 

M.  Jules  Loiseleur,  in  his  charming  series 
of  Problemes  historiques  (1867)  argued  with 
force  and  brilliancy  in  behalf  of  a  certain 
"  prisonnier  mysterieux  "  arrested  by  Catinat 
in  1 68 1.  Marius  Topin  put  Loiseleur  out  of 
court  and  countenance  "  by  discovering 
Catinat  in  the  very  prisoner  he  was  said  to 
have  arrested  !  " 

General  lung  wrote  a  big  and  very  in- 
teresting book  *  in  support  of  the  claims 
of  one    Louis    de   Oldendorf  (known   also    as 

*  La  Verite  stir  le  Masque  de  Fer.     (Les  Empoisonneurs).      Paris  : 
H.  Plon,  1873. 

12 


178         THE  MAN  IN  THE  IRON  MASK. 

Lefroid,  de  Kiffenbach,  and  the  Chevalier 
des  Armoises),  a  native  of  Lorraine,  a  spy 
and  poisoner,  arrested  March  29,  1673,  in 
connection  with  the  celebrated  "  affaire  des 
poisons."  lung's  work  casts  a  broad  light 
upon  those  "  amazing  poison-dramas  "  which 
remained  for  years  among  the  obscurest 
problems  of  the  reign  of  Louis  XIV.  ;  but 
in  the  endeavour  to  identify  Oldendorf  with 
the  Man  in  the  Mask  he  failed  completely. 
As  his  opponent,  M.  Lair,  at  once  observed 
(and  the  point  is  emphasized  by  M.  Funck- 
Brentano),  "  General  lung  did  not  even  suc- 
ceed in  proving  that  his  nominee  entered 
Pignerol,  an  essential  condition  to  his  being 
the  Masque  de  Fer." 

These  records,  then,  may  once  again  be 
wiped  from  memory  :  Oblivion  has  looked 
upon  them  all.  We  have  still  to  pluck  the 
heart  out  of  the  mystery. 


PART  II. 

THE    MAN    IN    THE    MASK. 


i8i 


CHAPTER    I. 

Had     Louis     XIV.     maintained     in 

The  Intrigue 

for        Italy  the   sagacious  policy  of  Riche- 
casaie.     jjeu>      there      had      never     been     a 
Man  in  the  Iron  Mask ! 

Victorious  in  1631,  that  great  minister 
in  his  prudence  sacrificed  most  of  the  fruits 
of  his  victory  ;  restored  Piedmont  and  Savoy, 
retaining  only  the  stronghold  of  Pignerol, 
whereby  he  held  always  open  a  gate  of 
northern  Italy.  To  keep  watch  on  Italy 
without  alarming  her ;  to  protect  the  rights 
of  the  small  Italian  princes,  while  not 
menacing  their  independence ;  to  require  of 
them  in  return  the  fullest  measure  of  con- 
fidence ;  to  thwart  the  Spanish  plots,  and 
suffer    the    Spaniards    to    draw    upon    them- 


i82         THE  MAN  IN  THE  IRON  MASK, 

selves  all  manner  of  Italian  hatreds  :  in  a 
word,  to  preserve  an  attitude  passive  but 
vigilant,  firm  but  not  threatening — such  was 
Richelieu's  judicious  policy  towards  Italy. 

And  to  this  policy  Louis  XIV.  adhered, 
until,  at  about  middle  age,  great  in  the 
reflected  triumphs  of  his  diplomats  on  the 
one  hand,  and  of  his  invincible  troops  on  the 
other,  he  looked  upon  himself,  not  without 
reason,  as  Europe's  arbiter.  Before  the 
Treaty  of  Nimeguen  had  been  signed  in 
1678,  his  ambitious  fancy  had  o'erleaped  the 
Alps ;  and  in  Louvois,  his  Minister  of  War, 
he  found  a  willing  and  impetuous  supporter. 
In  Piedmont  he  possessed  Pignerol,  which, 
sufficient  in  the  eyes  of  Richelieu,  no  longer 
contented  Louis,  who  had  imagined  for  him- 
self a  great  role  in  Italy.  He  would  have 
done  well  to  remember  at  this  juncture  that 
his  authority  beyond  the  Alps  had  been 
accepted  in  proportion  as  its  aims  had  been 


THE  INTRIGUE   FOR   C A  SALE.  183 

disguised,  and  that  there  must  come  a  change 
in  the  sentiments  of  the  Italians  when  it  was 
perceived  that  the  moderate  policy  of  Mazarin 
and  Richelieu  was  to  be  superseded  by  the 
"  military  diplomacy  "  of  Louvois. 

Among  the  kinglets  sharing  the  pleasant 
territories  of  northern  Italy  at  this  era  was 
the  young  Charles  IV.,  Duke  of  Mantua, 
"the  degenerate  representative  of  that  House 
of  Gonzaga  from  which  had  sprung  so  many 
illustrious  men,  and  which  had  allied  itself 
with  some  of  the  foremost  families  of 
Europe."  History  depicts  Charles  as  a  rare 
gambler,  rake,  and  spendthrift  ;  an  absentee 
who  seldom  visited  his  little  territory  except 
to  wring  money  from  it ;  a  leader  in  the 
gaieties  of  Venice,  where  he  was  fast  exhaust- 
ing in  extravagant  adventures  the  remnants 
of  health  and  fortune.  His  revenues  were 
spent  before  they  reached  him,  and  he 
was    always    in    the   hands   of   the    Jews.      In 


i84         THE  MAN  IN  THE  IRON  MASK. 

fine,  the  young  Duke  was  on  the  point  of 
being  up  for  sale — and  Louis  XIV.  was  not 
unwilling  to  become  his  purchaser. 

Separated  from  Mantua  by  the  fair 
extent  of  the  great  plain  of  Lombardy  was 
the  Marquisate  of  Montferrat,  a  fertile  and 
coveted  tract  which  had  been  annexed 
to  the  Duchy  of  Charles  IV.  Of  this  region 
the  capital  was  Casale,  a  fortified  place, 
swept  by  the  Po,  and  lying  some  fifteen 
leagues  to  the  east  of  Turin.  The  district 
is  rugged,  and  at  this  day  almost  untravelled, 
but  Charlemagne  had  planted  here  an  out- 
post of  his  empire.  The  walls  of  Casale 
"  are  still  formidable,  though  the  children 
race  up  and  down  their  approaches  unterri- 
fied ;  and  the  castle  and  the  citadel  still  re- 
echo to  the  clash  of  arms,  as  they  have  done 
for  more  than  a  thousand  years.  .  . 
Palaces,  too,  may  be  found,  if  one  care  to 
look  for  them,  and — best  of  all — broad  shady 


Louis  XIV. 
From  an  engraving  after  Fiter. 


THE  INTRIGUE  FOR   CASALE.  187 

walks  by  the  ancient  bastions."  *  This 
Casale  was  a  place  of  great  strategical  im- 
portance, above  all  for  Piedmont  :  Turin  had 
always  eagerly  desired  it.  That  the  Duke  of 
Mantua,  given  over  to  his  pleasures,  should 
possess  a  footing  in  this  neighbour-territory  of 
Piedmont,  mattered  little  to  anybody  :  but  that 
the  King  of  France  should  establish  himself 
there — this  would  be  a  serious  concern  for 
Turin.  He  was  already  master  of  Pignerol, 
and  if  the  reader  will  glance  at  a  map  of 
northern  Italy  he  will  see  at  once  that,  master 
of  Casale  also,  Louis  would  hold  the  Govern 
ment  of  Turin  between  two  redoubtable  fort 
resses.  From  Pignerol  in  the  south-west, 
the  passage  of  the  Alps  lay  open  to  him  ; 
at  Casale  in  the  north-east,  he  would  stand 
upon  the  high  road  to  Milan.  And  Casale 
was  the  object  of  the  intrigue  "  mysteriously 
begun  in   1676." 

*  Justin  H.  Smith,   "The  Troubadours  at  Home,"  Vol.  i. 


188         THE  MAN  IN  THE  IRON  MASK. 

The  minister  of  Louis  at  the  capital  of  the 
Venetian  Republic  was  the  Abbe  d'Estrades  ; 
an  able,  restless,  scheming  man  ;  eager  to 
commend  himself  to  his  master  by  some  suc- 
cessful stroke  of  diplomacy.*  No  sooner  was 
d'Estrades  aware  that  Louvois  had  put 
Casale  into  the  mind  of  Louis,  than  he 
began  forthwith  to  make  the  project  his 
own.  Casale  must  be  ceded  to  Louis,  and 
d'Estrades  was  the  man  to  contrive  it.  He 
knew  how  Charles  of  Mantua  stood,  how 
overpowering  was  his  need  of  money,  and 
how  beggared  his  resources :  he  knew  the 
character  of  Charles.  The  situation  seemed 
as  fortunate  as  fortunate  could  be. 

Further,  it  was  well  known  to  the  Abbe 
that  Charles  was  greatly  in  the  hands  of  his 

*  "The  Abbe  d'Estrades,  Ambassador  for  a  considerable  time 
from  Lewis  the  Fourteenth  to  the  Republic  of  Venice,  was  son  of 
Godfrey,  Count  d'Estrades,  so  long  employed  in  negotiations  and 
embassies  in  Holland,  and  who  was  one  of  the  eight  Marshals  of 
France  made  upon  the  death  of  Turenne.  Madame  Cornuel  called 
them  '  La  Monnoie  de  M.  de  Turenne.'  " — Ellis. 


THE  INTRIGUE  FOR    CAS  ALE.  189 

favourites ;  that  the  affairs  of  Mantua  were 
more  or  less  administered  by  them ;  that 
Charles — so  long  as  he  were  left  to  his 
gamesters,  his  women,  and  his  wine-parties — 
was  very  prone  to  take  their  counsel  in  all 
things.  Through  one  of  these  persons  the 
young  Duke  might  be  approached. 

High  among  the  favourites  of  Charles  was 
Ercole  Antonio  Mattioli.  Born  at  Bologna, 
the  1  st  of  December,  1640,  Mattioli,  a  fore- 
most figure  in  Mantuan  society,  belonged  to 
an  ancient  and  distinguished  family  of  lawyers. 
His  grandfather,  Costantino  Mattioli,  had 
risen  to  the  rank  of  senator ;  and  one  of  his 
uncles,  Hercule  or  Ercole  Mattioli,  a  Jesuit 
father,  was  a  noted  orator.  At  the  age  of 
nineteen  Ercole  Antonio  himself  was  a  prize- 
man in  civil  and  canonical  law,  and  a  little 
later  he  held  a  chair  in  the  University  of 
Bologna.  Topin  describes  him  as  having 
won    some    repute    in    authorship.        Having 


19©         THE  MAN  IN  THE  IRON  MASK. 

allied  himself  by  marriage  with  a  senatorial 
family  of  his  native  town,  Mattioli  settled  in 
Mantua,  where  his  talents  and  his  graces 
won  him  the  patronage  and  support  of 
Charles  III.,  by  whom  he  was  ultimately 
appointed  Secretary  of  State.  The  son  and 
successor  of  Charles  III.  favoured  him  not 
less,  and  in  this  reign  Mattioli  was  created 
Supernumerary  Senator  of  Mantua,  a  dignity 
which  carried  with  it  the  title  of  Count. 
"  When  he  ceased  to  be  Secretary  of  State," 
says  Ellis,  "does  not  appear;  but  he  was 
clearly  not  in  that  office  when  he  first,  un- 
happily for  himself,  was  involved  in  diplo- 
matic relations  with  the  agents  of  the  French 
Government."  What  is  certain  is  that,  al- 
though not  at  this  date  Secretary  of  State, 
Mattioli  was  wholly  in  the  Duke's  good 
graces,  his  companion  in  affairs  of  pleasure, 
and  a  counsellor  in  politics  when  Charles  was 
minded  to  be  serious. 


THE  INTRIGUE  FOR    CAS  ALE.  191 

Him  the  Abbe  cTEstrades  resolved  to 
sound  upon  the  affair  of  Casale.  But  before 
putting  himself  in  direct  communication  with 
Mattioli,  d'Estrades  despatched  to  him  one 
Giuliani,  a  roving  Italian  newsman,  who 
tripped  from  town  to  town  seeking  things 
to  publish  in  a  sheet  of  which  he  was  the 
editor.  "  A  little  editor  of  newspapers,  in 
whose  shop  the  letters  of  news  are  written," 
is  the  description  given  of  him  in  a  despatch 
from  Venice  to  the  minister  Pomponne. 
Faring  hither  and  thither  on  his  proper 
business — Turin,  Milan,  Verona,  Mantua, 
Venice — Giuliani  was  the  man  who  could  be 
used  as  a  go-between,  and  no  suspicion 
raised  as  to  his  movements.  D'Estrades 
sent  him  to  parley  with  Mattioli  at  Verona ; 
and  this  was  the  first  real  move  in  the 
game. 


192 


CHAPTER    II. 

It  is  begun  in  the  strictest  secrecy. 
The  Ripening  Qn     fa     French     side     they     were 

Plot. 

well  aware  that  the  occupation  of 
Casale  by  troops  of  Louis  XIV.  could  cer- 
tainly make  little  for  the  permanent  welfare 
of  Italy,  while  the  advisers  of  Charles  IV. 
were  quite  alive  to  the  necessity  of  keeping 
the  affair  from  the  eyes  and  ears  of  the 
Spanish  party  intriguing  in  the  Court 
of  Mantua.  They  were  opponents  to  be 
reckoned  with.  Charles's  mother,  Isabella 
Clara  of  Austria,  who  headed  his  council, 
and  who  was  the  real  ruler  in  Mantua,  was 
entirely  pledged  to  the  Spanish  interests,  as 
opposed  to  those  of  France. 

The  situation  is   lucidly  set  out  in  the  first 


THE  RIPENING  PIOT.  193 

long  despatch  of  d'Estrades  to  Louis  XIV., 
dated  from  Venice,  December  18th,  1677.* 
D'Estrades  had  satisfied  himself  that  Charles 
possessed  "  more  talent  and  ambition  than 
he  was  thought  to  have  "  ;  that  he  would  gladly 
get  back  the  authority  which  had  slipped 
into  his  mother's  hands  ;  and  that  he  had  a 
rooted  distrust  of  the  Spaniards,  who,  as  he 
believed,  aimed  at  securing  for  themselves 
Casale  and  the  whole  Montferrat.  These 
were  the  facts  which  gave  d'Estrades  to 
believe  that  the  Duke  would  be  not  unwilling 
to  place  himself  to  some  extent  under  the  pro- 
tection of  the  French  King.  The  despatch  goes 
on  to  show  why  Mattioli  had  been  selected  as 
the  agent  to  approach  the  Duke,  and  Giuliani 
as  the  agent  to  approach  Mattioli. 

"  I     have    thought,"    writes    d'Estrades    to 
Louis,   "  that   I    could    not    employ  anyone   in 

*  We  issue  here  upon  that  remarkable  series  of  papers  which  Delort 
was  the  first  to  overhaul  in  the  Foreign  Office  at  Paris,  and  in  which 
he  found  the  beginnings  of  the  true  history  of  the  Iron  Mask. 

13 


i94         THE  MAN  IN  THE  IRON  MASK. 

this  affair  more  proper  to  conduct  it  than  a 
certain  Count  Mattioli,  who  is  entirely  devoted 
to  that  prince.  I  had  known  him  for  some 
time,  and  he  had  shown  a  great  desire  to 
render  himself  agreeable  to  your  Majesty  by 
some  service.  I  knew  that  he  had  been 
Secretary  of  State  to  the  late  Duke  of 
Mantua  ;  that  the  reigning  duke  had  preserved 
much  affection  for  him,  and  that  he  was  well 
informed  as  to  the  different  interests  of  the 
Princes  of  Italy.  As,  however,  he  had  been 
much  in  the  Milanese,  and  had  had  access  to 
the  Spanish  ministers,  I  resolved  not  to  place 
any  confidence  in  him  till  I  had  put  him  to  the 
proof.  I  accordingly  charged  the  Giuliani  to 
whom  your  Majesty  was  good  enough  to  send 
a  reward  six  months  ago,  and  whose  zeal  for 
your  service  forbids  all  doubt  of  his  fidelity, 
to  observe  Mattioli  attentively,  and  in  secret. 
Having  been  sufficiently  informed  of  his  ex- 
treme   discontent    with    the    Spaniards,    who, 


THE  RIPENING   PLOT.  195 

after  entertaining  him  with  hopes,  had  always 
in  the  end  abandoned  him,  I  sent  Giuliani,  in 
the  month  of  last  October,  to  Verona,  where 
he  went  under  pretext  of  his  private  affairs." 

We  may  return  to  that  month,  and  overhear 
the  first  overtures  of  Giuliani  in  an  affair 
which  was  to  bring  about  results  terrible 
enough  for  Mattioli.  Giuliani  had  been 
well  primed  by  the  abbe,  and  shows  for  his 
own  part  an  emphatic  interest  in  his  mission. 
As  d'Estrades  had  instructed  him,  he  repre- 
sented to  Mattioli  that  the  friends  of  the 
Duke  desired  greatly  to  see  him  in  a  position 
of  independence  ;  that  all  his  territories  and 
all  his  revenues  were  under  the  absolute 
control  of  his  mother  and  the  monk  Bulgarini, 
her  confessor,  and  that  Casale  and  the  Mont- 
ferrat  were  threatened  by  all  manner  of 
Spanish  and  other  intrigues. 

To  these  hints  Mattioli  lent  an  open  and 
a    friendly    ear.      "He    had   long,    with    grief, 

13* 


196         THE  MAN  IN  THE  IRON  MASK. 

seen  the  truth "  of  what  Giuliani  had  laid 
before  him,  he  said,  but  "  there  was  still  a 
remedy  for  so  great  an  evil,"  and  he  would, 
with  Monsieur  1' Abbe's  approval,  get  speech 
of  the  Duke  and  "discover  his  real  sentiments." 
All  this  was  duly  conveyed  by  Giuliani  to 
d'Estrades,  and  by  d'Estrades  to  Louis  XIV. 

Next  we  are  apprised  of  the  "  secret  in- 
terview "  which  Mattioli  had  with  Mantua, 
and  then  of  the  meeting  between  that  prince 
and  Giuliani.  The  Duke,  says  d'Estrades, 
"  approved  very  much  of  the  proposition  that 
was  made  him,  to  free  him  from  the  perpetual 
uneasiness  he  felt  on  the  score  of  the 
Spaniards,  and  that,  for  this  purpose,  Casale 
should  be  placed  in  your  Majesty's  hands, 
upon  the  understanding  that  I  should  try 
to  obtain  from  you  in  his  favour  all  that 
he  could  reasonably  ask  for." 

The  Duke  desired  to  communicate  the 
matter   to  two  of  his   counsellors,    "  in   whom 


THE  RIPENING   PLOT.  197 

he  had  the  most  confidence,"  and  he  gave 
the  selection  of  them  to  Mattioli.  Mattioli 
named  the  Marquis  Cavriani  and  Joseph 
Varano,  "  in  whom  he  has  confidence."  The 
affair,  it  is  evident,  was  already  in  a  good 
train  ;  already  there  was  talk  of  the  preparation 
of  "  a  draft  of  the  plan."  D'Estrades  was 
now  anxious  for  a  personal  interview  with 
the  Duke,  and  this,  it  was  agreed,  should  be  ' 
managed  at  Venice  in  Carnival  time,  when 
all  the  world,  "  even  the  Doge  and  the  oldest 
senators,"  went  masked.  What  the  Duke  de- 
sired above  everything  was  that  Louis  should 
send  into  Italy  a  sufficiently  strong  army  "  to 
be  able  to  undertake  something  considerable," 
— an  army  of  which  he  wanted  the  general- 
ship, says  d'Estrades,  "  in  order  to  be  con- 
sidered in  Italy  like  the  late  Duke  of  Modena, 
and  the  late  Duke  of  Mantua,  who  at  his  age 
commanded  in  chief  the  Emperor's  army,  with 
the  title  of  Vicar-General  of  the  Empire." 


198        THE  MAN  IN  THE  IRON  MASK. 

Enclosed  with  d'Estrades's  despatch  was  a 
letter  from  Mattioli  to  Louis,*  in  which  he 
protests  his  devotion  to  him  and  to  the 
interests  of  France.  "  For  myself,  I  bless 
the  destiny  which  procures  me  the  honour 
of  serving  so  great  a  monarch,  whom  I 
regard  and  revere  as  a  demi-god."  He 
undertakes  to  "transmit  to  your  Majesty  all 
that  I  shall  learn  respecting  Casale,  which 
has  been  fortified  by  one  of  the  most  skilful 
engineers  of  the  Milanese."  He  entices  the 
King  with  a  hint  of  the  great  strength  of 
the  place.  "  I  am  convinced  it  would  be 
useless  in  me  to  enlarge  upon  the  importance 
of  the  fortress  of  Casale.  Your  Majesty 
must  remember  that  at  different  times  it  has 
arrested  the  progress  of  many  armies,  and 
that  it  is  the  only  bulwark  upon  which 
depends  the  loss  or  the  preservation  to  the 
Spaniards   of  the   territories   of   Milan  ;    terri- 

*  December  14th,  1677. 


THE   RIPENING  PLOT.  199 

tories  which,  for  more  reasons  than  one, 
ought  to  belong  to  your  Majesty's  crown." 

To  this  Louis  replies  with  his  own  hand, 
on  the  1 2th  of  January,  1678  : — 

"  I  have  seen  from  the  letter  you  wrote 
me,  as  well  as  from  what  has  been  com- 
municated to  me  by  my  Ambassador,  the 
Abbe  d'Estrades,  the  affection  you  exhibit 
for  my  interests.  You  cannot  doubt  that 
I  am  greatly  obliged  to  you,  and  that  I  shall 
have  much  pleasure  in  giving  you  proofs 
of  my  satisfaction  upon  every  occasion." 

On  the  24th  of  December,  1677,  and  on 
the  1st  of  January,  1678,  we  have  despatches 
of  d'Estrades  to  the  minister  Pomponne.* 
The    Abbe    has    learned    from    the     Duke    of 

*  "  Simon  Arnaud  de  Pomponne,  Secretary  of  State  for  Foreign 
Affairs  from  1 67 1  to  1679,  when  he  was  dismissed  from  his  office,  but 
retained  the  title  of  Minister  of  State,  with  permission  to  attend  the 
Council.  A  man,  like  so  many  of  his  race,  who  united  considerable 
talents  to  great  excellence  of  character.  Madame  de  Sevigne  says, 
in  speaking  of  the  eminent  station  he  had  filled,  that  '  Fortune  had 
wished  to  make  use  of  his  virtues  for  the  happiness  of  others.'  " — Ellis. 


200         THE  MAN  IN  THE  IRON  MASK. 

Mantua  that,  should  the  French  enter  Italy, 
and  should  the  Duke  show  a  disposition  to 
favour  them,  the  Austrian  party  have  deter- 
mined to  seize  Casale  and  all  the  Mont- 
ferrat.  Mantua  also  is  to  be  occupied. 
In  these  circumstances,  the  Duke,  who  is 
"  watched  by  his  mother,  by  the  monk 
Bulgarini,  who  governs  her,  and  by  the 
greater  part  of  his  ministers,"  can  neither 
declare  himself  openly  on  Louis's  side,  nor 
deliver  up  Casale  to  him,  "  unless  he  will 
send  a  sufficient  army  into  Italy  to  secure 
that  fortress."  Further,  "  the  Emperor  and 
the  Spaniards  are  ardently  soliciting  the 
Nuncios  and  the  Ambassadors  from  Venice, 
residing  at  Madrid  and  Vienna,  to  persuade 
their  masters  to  unite  with  them  against 
France,  and  to  represent  to  them  that  they 
have  a  common  interest  in  the  preservation 
of  Italy,  and  in  keeping  out  of  it,  the  armies 
with  which  it  is  menaced." 


THE  RIPENING  PLOT.  201 

On  the  1 2th  of  January,  Louis  writes  ex- 
haustively to  d'Estrades,  commending  his 
zeal  in  the  business,  and  flattering  Charles 
for  the  "  noble  resolutions  he  seems  disposed 
to  take."  As  for  the  citadel  and  fortress 
of  Casale,  should  they  be  given  up  to  him, 
Louis  says,  "  I  shall  willingly  content  myself 
with  holding  them  in  the  same  manner  in 
which  I  held  them  formerly  ;  that  is  to  say, 
under  the  condition  of  preserving  them  for 
the  Duke  of  Mantua,  and  of  paying  the 
garrisons  I  shall  keep  there.  I  would  also, 
in  order  to  favour  the  military  inclinations 
of  this  Prince,  take  measures  with  him 
respecting  the  command  of  the  armies  I 
shall  send  across  the  Alps." 

Louis  objects,  however,  to  the  Duke's  price 
of  one  hundred  thousand  pistoles.*  "You  must 
make  him  understand  that  this  sum  is  too 
large."     As  it  was  not  convenient  to  Louis  to 

*  About  ^"40,000  ;  the  pistole  being  equal  to  ten  francs. 


202         THE  MAN  IN  THE  IRON  MASK. 

send  a  considerable  army  into  Italy  that  year, 
d'Estrades  is  instructed  to  protract  the  negotia- 
tions, and  to  "  continue  to  entertain  "  the  Duke 
with  the  notion  that  the  French  troops  would 
shortly  arrive  in  his  territories.*  Mattioli,  as 
the  principal  confidant  in  the  affair,  is  to  be 
kept  "always  in  good  humour,  by  the  assurance 
of  the  especial  good-will  I  bear  him  for  his 
conduct,  and  by  the  expectation  of  the  proofs 
of  it  which  I  shall  be  inclined  to  give  him." 

The  main  difficulty — indeed,  almost  the  only 
one— was  to  protract  the  negotiations,  for* 
everything  was  going  so  smoothly  and  so 
rapidly  that,  as  d'Estrades  writes  to  Pomponne 
on  the  29th  of  January,  there  was  no  serious 
hindrance  to  be  found  or  created.  It  was  in 
the  month  of  January  that  Mattioli  began 
secretly  to  visit  the  Abbe  at  his  house  in 
Venice.  The  only  point  the  Duke's  agent 
seemed  inclined  to  contest  was  the  price  to  be 
paid  for  the  occupation  of  Casale.     At  length, 


THE  RIPENING  PLOT.  203 

he  proposed  to  d'Estrades  a  sum  of  500,000 
livres,  about  ,£20,000.  This  was  reducing  the 
price  by  half,  but  d'Estrades  was  for  a  lower 
figure  still  ;  and,  eventually  Mattioli,  knowing 
his  master's  straits,  was  induced  to  accept  an 
offer  of  100,000  crowns. 

Taking  the  crown  at  a  value  of  three  francs 
(though  it  is  all  but  impossible  to  determine 
the  relative  values  of  the  moneys  then  in  cir- 
culation), this  would  represent  the  trifling  sum 
of  £12,000.  This,  moreover,  was  to  be  paid 
only  on  conditions.  "  Finally,  Sire,  I  brought 
him  to  content  himself  with  one  hundred 
thousand  crowns ;  and  that  on  condition  that 
your  Majesty  was  not  to  pay  them  till  after  the 
treaty  had  been  signed  ;  and  then,  if  you 
choose  not  to  give  the  whole  sum  at  once,  that 
the  Duke  of  Mantua  should  receive  fifty 
thousand  crowns  first,  and  the  remaining  fifty 
thousand  three  months  afterwards." 

Everything    else    was    agreed    to    "  without 


2o4         THE  MAN  IN  THE  IRON  MASK. 

difficulty."  Duke  Charles,  in  fine,  was  in  a 
hurry  to  conclude  the  affair ;  being,  says  the 
Abbe,  "in  continual  terror  of  the  design,  which 
he  understands  the  Spaniards  to  have,  of 
seizing  upon  his  fortresses  on  the  least  pretext, 
and  on  the  first  favourable  occasion." 

The  next  step  was  to  arrange  the  meeting 
between  Charles  and  d'Estrades,  and  nothing 
hindered  this  but  the  extreme  secrecy  with 
which  the  affair  was  being  conducted.  Charles 
had  come  to  Venice  in  the  last  days  of  January, 
but  the  Spaniards  were  watching  him,  and  it 
was  not  until  the  13th  of  March,  1678,  that  he 
and  the  Abbe  contrived  their  interview.  We 
see  them  encountering  at  midnight,  closely 
masked,  "  in  a  small  open  space,"  says 
d'Estrades  in  his  despatch  to  Louis,  "  which 
is  at  an  equal  distance  from  his  house  and 
mine.  I  was  an  entire  hour  with  him."  The 
Duke  was  in  a  pressing  haste  to  get  the  treaty 
ratified,  from  the  fear  that  he  was  in  of  being 


THE   RIPENING   PLOT.  205 

"  overwhelmed  by  the  Spaniards."  Money, 
money  was  his  call  :  his  supplies  from  the 
Spaniards  were  threatening  to  stop,  and, 
lacking  this  support,  he  could  not  maintain  the 
garrison  of  Casale.  His  sole  trust,  he  said, 
was  in  France :  When  would  Louis's  troops 
appear  in  Italy  ?  He  was  tired  of  the  slowness 
of  despatches,  and  begged  that  Mattioli,  in 
whom,  says  d'Estrades,  "he  has  a  blind  con- 
fidence," might  be  sent  to  the  French  court, 
where  his  presence  "may  bring  matters  to  a 
speedier  issue." 

D'Estrades  was  put  to  a  shift.  He  knew 
that  Louis  could  not  send  in  1678  the  army 
upon  which  Mantua  was  counting.  He  knew 
that  the  Duke,  who  was  all  for  clinching  the 
treaty,  began  to  be  uneasy  at  the  length  of  the 
negotiations^  Balancing  the  issues,  he  decided 
to  let  Mattioli  go  to  Paris. 


206 


CHAPTER    III. 

But  being  still    under   the  necessity 

The  Treason 

of  count     of  biding   his  time  (for    Louis,   with 
Matuoii.     tjle     J3utch     on     his     hands,     could 

send  no  serviceable  army  into  Italy),  the 
Abbe  had  barely  made  this  decision  when 
he  began  to  devise  means  to  delay  the 
departure  of  Mattioli.  '  Here  again  fortune 
favoured  him  ;  and  the  Duke  was  at  this  time 
so  beset,  harassed,  and  importuned  by  the 
Spaniards  to  declare  himself  against  France, 
that  Mattioli,  fearful  of  leaving  him,  resolved 
to  postpone  his  journey  to  France.  This  was 
in  the  third  week  of  May  (1678).  On  the  9th 
of  July,  d'Estrades  advises  Pomponne  that 
Mattioli    is    to   start   almost    immediately,   and 


TREASON  OF  COUNT  MATTIOLI.         207 

that  he  should  reach  Paris  in  September. 
"  We  have  calculated  the  time  together,  and 
he  cannot  and  ought  not  to  leave  his  master 
sooner."  Mattioli  himself  begins  to  be  appre- 
hensive "that  these  delays  may  give  a  bad 
opinion  of  him  "  :  they  were,  in  truth,  just  what 
the  French  designs  required. 

Towards  the  end  of  the  month  the  Duke  is 
in  attendance  on  his  Duchess-mother,  ill  of 
a  fever.  "If  God  should  call  her  to  Himself, 
the  affair  of  Casale  would  without  doubt  be 
more  easy  to  conclude."  However,  the  lady 
lives  ;  and  the  affair  continues  to  move. 
Mattioli  does  not  cease  to  assure  the  Abbe 
that  the  Duke  is  "  always  firm  in  his  design 
of  putting  himself  under  the  protection "  of 
Louis — of  which,  indeed,  there  was  very  little 
question. 

Still,  Mattioli  cannot  get  off  to  France. 
The  Abbe  himself  precedes  him  thither : 
partly,  it  would  seem,  on  a  holiday,  and  partly 


208         THE  MAN  IN  THE  IRON  MASK. 

in  connection  with  the  negotiations.  He  is 
succeeded  at  Venice  by  Pinchesne,  from  whose 
first  despatch  to  Pomponne — September  3rd, 
1678 — we  learn  that  Mattioli  has  been  ill,  but 
hopes  soon  to  be  able  to  commence  his  journey 
to  the  Court.  Nine  days  later,  it  is  Mattioli 
who  writes  concerning  his  illness  to  Louis,  de- 
ploring the  further  delay  it  has  occasioned  him. 
"  The  eagerness  I  have  is  extraordinary,  to  be 
able  with  all  possible  celerity  to  throw  myself 
at  your  Majesty's  feet." 

It  is  the  29th  of  October  before  we  know 
that  he  is  actually  off :  Pinchesne  has  news  of 
him,  "written  from  Berheta  on  the  26th  of  this 
month."  Meanwhile,  as  late  as  November 
1 8th,  Paris  has  not  yet  beheld  him.  "  Neither 
the  Count  Mattioli  nor  the  Sieur  Giuliani," 
writes  Pomponne  from  Versailles,  "  is  yet 
arrived  here."  At  the  end  of  the  month 
Mattioli  was  really  in  Paris. 

No  time  was  lost  now  in  drawing  to  a  close. 


TREASON  OF  COUNT  MATT  10 LI.         2*9 

D'Estrades  was  already  in  Paris  ;  and  with  him 
and  M.  de  Pomponne,  Charles's  minister  had 
several  interviews.  A  treaty  was  quickly 
agreed  upon,  of  which  the  following  were  the 
chief  stipulations  : — 

1.  That  the  Duke  of  Mantua  should  receive 
the  French  troops  into  Casale. 

2.  That  if  Louis  XIV.  sent  an  army  into 
Italy,  the  Duke  of  Mantua  should  be  appointed 
generalissimo. 

3.  That  upon  the  execution  of  the  treaty,  the 
sum  of  one  hundred  thousand  crowns  should 
be  paid  to  the  Duke  of  Mantua. 

Altogether  a  wonderful  bargain  from  the 
standpoint  of  the  King  of  France.  For  a  mere 
,£12,000  or  so,  he  acquired  a  splendid  fortress 
which,  with  the  one  that  was  already  his  at 
Pignerol,  would  enable  him  to  control  the 
destinies  of  Northern  Italy.  The  Court  may 
well  have  been  astonished  at  the  terms,  and 
at  the  ease  and  rapidity  with  which  the  whole 

14 


2fo        THE  MAN  IN   THE  IRON  MASK. 

affair  had  been  concluded.  Moreover,  so  skil- 
fully had  it  been  contrived,  on  the  part  of 
Pomponne,  of  d'Estrades,  of  Pinchesne,  and 
of  the  small  number  of  the  Duke  of  Mantua's 
abettors,  that  no  whisper  of  the  plot  had 
reached  the  Duchess  Dowager  or  any  of  her 
circle. 

Mattioli  was  admitted  to  secret  audience  by 
Louis,  who  presented  him  with  a  ring  and  a 
sum  of  money,  and  promised  that  his  son 
should  be  a  king's  page,  and  that  his  brother, 
who  was  in  the  Church,  should  receive  pre- 
ferments Mattioli  then  prepared  to  return 
to  Italy. 

The  secrecy  which  had  been  all  along 
observed  was  still  maintained.  Pomponne, 
advising  Pinchesne  of  the  Italian's  departure 
from  France,  bade  him  "  keep  the  journey  very 
secret."  Varano,  one  of  the  two  persons  to 
whom  the   Duke  of  Mantua  had  confided  the 

*  Delort,  Ellis,  Topin. 


TREASON  OF  COUNT  MATTWLI.         211 

design,  was  advised  by  Pinchesne  that  he  had 
a  letter  for  his  Highness  from  France  ;  and 
Varano  proposed  .they  should  meet  in  mask 
at  the  opera.  At  about  the  same  date  (we  are 
now  in  the  closing  days  of  1678)  Pomponne 
instructed  Pinchesne  that  he  was  sending  him 
a  new  cipher  by  courier ;  and  the  old  pre- 
cautions were  kept  up. 

"  The  courier  whom  I  despatch  to  you 
has  orders  not  to  go  to  your  house  as  a 
courier,  but  to  enter  Venice  as  a  tradesman, 
or  as  a  private  French  individual  who  goes 
there  on  his  own  business.  He  brings  you 
a  cipher,  which  you  will  employ  only  in 
what  concerns  the  affairs  of  the  Duke  of 
Mantua.  We  have  been  afraid  that,  for 
so  important  a  business,  the  cipher  of  the 
Abbe  d'Estrades  was  too  old,  and  had 
probably  been  discovered  in  the  many  times 
it  passed  through  the  territories  of  Milan." 

The    scheme    having    advanced    thus     far, 

14* 


212         THE  MAN  IN  THE  IRON  MASK. 

Louis  was  now  eager  to  see  it  to  the  end. 
The  able  Louvois,  in  whom  Topin  discerns 
the  finest  genius  for  organisation  up  to  the 
era  of  Napoleon,  rapidly  prepared  the  whole 
plan  of  action.  A  strong  body  of  troops, 
placed  under  the  command  of  the  Marquis  de 
Boufflers,  Colonel  General  of  Dragoons,  was 
assembled  at  Briancon,  ready  to  pass  the 
frontier.  Baron  d'Asfeld,  Colonel  of  Dragoons, 
set  out  for  Venice,  with  a  commission  to 
exchange  the  ratification  of  the  treaty.  Catinat, 
then  Brigadier  of  Infantry,*  went  "  dans  le 
plus  grand  mystere"  to  Pignerol,  where  he 
was  to  conceal  himself  in  the  fortress,  and 
to  take  for  the  time  being  the  name  of 
de  Richemont.  The  first  despatch  of  Louvois 
to  Saint-Mars  concerning  this  affair  has  refer- 
ence to  the  coming  of  Catinat.  It  is  dated 
from   St.    Germain-en-Laye,    Dec.   29th,    1678. 

*  Afterwards  the  celebrated  Marshal.     Voltaire  says  of  him  that  he 
united  philosophy  to  great  military  talents. 


TREASON  OF  COUNT  MATTWLL         213 

"  These  few  words  are  to  inform  you  that 
it  is  necessary  for  the  King's  service  that 
the  person  from  whom  you  will  receive  this 
should  enter  the  citadel  of  Pignerol,  unknown 
to  anyone.  With  this  in  view,  let  the  Safety 
Gate  *  remain  open  until  night-fall,  and  send 
him  one  of  your  servants  ;  or  better,  if  you 
are  able,  go  yourself  to  meet  him  at  the 
spot  to  which  his  valet  will  conduct  you,  in 
order  that  he  may  pass  into  the  citadel  and 
dungeon  in  your  suite,  without  being  observed 
by  anyone." 

Louis  had  already  written  to  the  Duke  of 
Mantua  : — 

"  My  Cousin, — 

"  The  Count  Mattioli  will  instruct  you  so 
particularly,  both  as  to  the  manner  in  which 
he  performed  the  orders  with  which  you 
charged    him    for    me,  and  as  to  the  extreme 

*  Porte  de  Secours. 


2i4         THE  MAN  IN  THE  IRON  MASK, 

satisfaction  with  which  I  have  received  his 
assurances  of  your  zeal  for  my  interests,  that 
I  can  have  nothing  further  to  add  upon  these 
subjects.  I  am  only  desirous  of  stating  that 
I  wish  you  to  place  entire  confidence  in  my 
friendship.  You  may  promise  yourself  that  it 
will  be  both  useful  and  glorious  to  you  upon 
all  occasions,  and  you  may  always  rely 
securely  upon  my  alliance.  I  hope  to  be  able 
to  give  you  in  the  end  unmistakable  proofs 
of  this.  Having  testified  to  you  the  satis- 
faction which  the  conduct  of  Count  Mattioli 
has  afforded  me  throughout  the  whole  of  this 
affair,  I  will  add  only  that  I  pray  God  to 
have  you,  my  Cousin,  in  His  high  and  holy 
keeping. 

"  Written  at  Versailles,  this  8th  Dec.  1678. 

"  Louis, 
[and  under  the  King's 


signature], 


Arnaud." 


TREASON   OF  COUNT  MATT  10 LI.         215 

D'Asfeld  arrived  in  Venice  on  the  21st  of 
January,  1679,  and  at  once  communicated  his 
orders  to  Pinchesne ;  but  nothing  could  be 
agreed  upon  until  Mattioli  came,  who  was  still 
journeying  slowly  from  Paris.  They  were, 
however,  resolved  to  persuade  Charles  of 
Mantua  to  be  at  Casale  by  the  20th  of  Feb- 
ruary, to  make  the  exchange  of  the  treaty, 
and  to  prepare  for  the  entry  of  the  French 
troops.  On  the  part  of  the  French,  in  fine, 
all  was  now  impatience  where  before  it  had 
been  anxiety  for  delay.  There  was  sufficiency 
of  reason  for  this,  since  the  massing  of 
Louis's  troops  on  the  frontier  must  soon  alarm 
the  House  of  Austria  ;  and,  in  fact,  the  march 
towards  Pignerol  had  begun  in  the  last  days 
of  January.  But  just  as,  when  the  nego- 
tiations were  at  an  early  stage,  they  advanced 
too  rapidly  for  the  pleasure  and  convenience 
of  Louis,  so  now,  when  everything  was  in 
readiness    on  the  French    side,   and  Louvois's 


2i6         THE  MAN  IN  THE  IRON  MASK. 

plans    were  actually   in   execution,  delay  arose 
upon  delay  beyond  the  frontier. 

On  reaching  Italy,  Mattioli  was  again 
smitten  with  fever,  but  he  managed  to  see 
Pinchesne  and  d'Asfeld  in  the  first  week  of 
February.  Then  it  appeared  that  the  Duke 
could  not  possibly  go  to  Casale  earlier  than 
the  ioth  of  March.  He  alleged,  through 
Mattioli,  (i)  a  want  of  money  ;  (2)  the  fear 
he  had  of  leaving  behind  at  Mantua  Don 
Vincent  Gonzaga,  his  heir  presumptive,*  at 
so  critical  a  juncture  ;  and  (3)  "  the  obligation 
he  found  himself  under  of  holding  a  sort  of 
carousal  with  several  Venetian  gentlemen." 
Pinchesne,    in     excusing    to    Pomponne     the 

* ' '  Vincent  Gonzaga,  Count  of  St.  Paul,  afterwards  Duke  of 
Guastalla,  was  descended  from  a  younger  son  of  Ferrant  II.,  first  Duke 
of  Guastalla.  After  contesting  for  many  years  his  right  to  that 
Duchy  with  Ferdinand  Charles  IV.,  Duke  of  Mantua  (during  which 
they  were  both  merely  made  use  of,  by  turns,  as  the  instruments  of  the 
French  and  Austrian  domination),  he  was  finally  successful  in  estab- 
lishing himself  at  Guastalla  in  1706,  where  he  died  April  28th,  1714." 
—Ellis. 


TREASON  OF  COUNT  MATTIOLI.         217 

apparent  triviality  of  the  third  of  these  rea- 
sons, thinks  that,  after  all,  the  spectacle  of 
his  Highness  dallying  with  his  pleasures  in 
a  season  of  political  unquiet,  may  assist  to 
draw  off  the  suspicions  which  are  beginning 
to  gather  about  him.  In  any  event,  Charles 
was  clearly  bent  upon  keeping  his  engage- 
ment with  Louis. 

But  the  need  of  swift,  decisive  action  did 
not  diminish.  "  Meanwhile,  Sir,"  runs  a 
despatch  of  Pinchesne  on  the  18th  of  Feb- 
ruary, "  I  think  it  right  to  inform  you  that 
the  march  of  the  troops  to  Pignerol,  and  the 
munitions  and  money  that  are  carried  there, 
cause  genuine  alarm  in  all  Italy.  It  is  even 
publicly  stated  here  that  the  King  has  some 
great  design,  albeit  no  one  can  say  what  it 
is  ;  suspicion  falling  now  upon  Casale,  now 
upon  Geneva,  and  now  upon  Savoy,  but  more 
particularly  upon  the  Republic  of  Genoa,  by 
reason    of  what     has    lately    passed    there.      I 


218         THE  MAN  IN  THE  IRON  MASK. 

even  know  that  M.  Contarini  *  has  written 
in  these  terms  to  Venice."  More  than  this, 
the  Spanish  Ambassador  and  the  Abbe 
Frederic,  the  resident  of  the  Emperor,  went 
to  the  Duke  of  Mantua  and  plainly  told 
him  "  they  had  heard  from  Turin  that  he 
wished  to  give  Casale  and  the  Montferrat " 
to  the  King  of  France ;  representing  in 
strong  terms  "  the  disadvantages  that  would 
arise  to  all  Italy  from  such  an  action,  and 
particularly  to  the  House  of  Savoy,  on 
account  of  the  Duchy  of  Milan."  Charles 
denied  it  roundly,  wondering  how  the  gen- 
tlemen "  could  believe  in  reports  of  this 
nature "  ;  nevertheless,  adds  Pinchesne,  "  he 
is  always  in  the  intention  of  executing  the 
treaty  he  has  made  with  the  King." 

But  the  circumstances  were  becoming  tick- 
lish, and  Pomponne  deemed  it  well  to  be  more 
pressing   with    Mattioli.      Addressing   him  on 

*  Ambassador  from  the  Venetian  Republic  to  the  Court  of  Louis  XIV. 


TREASON  OF  COUNT  MATTIOLI.         219 

the  2 1  st  of  February,  he  wrote:  "I  have  not 
failed  to  inform  the  King  of  your  sorrow  for 
the  long  delay  over  an  affair  which  was  begun 
and  is  to  be  concluded  through  your  agency/' 
And  he  added  with  some  significance  :  "  His 
Majesty  is  still  willing  to  promise  himself  suc- 
cess in  this  enterprise,  and  will  entertain  no 
doubt  that  the  promise  so  solemnly  given  him 
is  to  be  fulfilled." 

Pinchesne  and  d'Asfeld  on  their  part  con- 
tinued to  ply  him ;  and  towards  the  end  of 
February  it  was  arranged  that  d'Asfeld  and 
Mattioli  should  go  on  the  9th  of  the  following 
month  to  the  village  of  Notre- Dame  d'Increa, 
ten  miles  from  Casale,  there  to  make  exchange 
of  the  ratifications  ;  while  the  Duke  of  Mantua 
should  be  at  Casale  " without  fail"  on  the 
evening  of  the  15th,  to  wait  for  the  troops  of 
Louis  (due  to  arrive  on  the  18th),  and  to  put 
them  in  possession  of  the  place. 

By  this  time   alarums   were  shaking   all  the 


22o         THE  MAN  IN  THE  IRON  MASK. 

north  of  Italy.  From  Turin,  from  Milan,  from 
Mantua  rumour,  growing  ever  more  definite, 
flowed  in  unceasingly.  Suspicions,  writes 
Pinchesne,  were  beginning  to  change  into 
certainties  that  Charles  of  Mantua  had  made 
a  treaty  with  Louis  for  the  cession  of 
Casale  and  the  Montferrat.  The  Governor  of 
Milan  sends  couriers  flying  to  Madrid  and 
Vienna  to  give  intelligence  to  the  Emperor  and 
the  King  of  Spain.  "  The  courier  to  Vienna 
returned  here  *  on  Wednesday  evening,  with 
express  orders  to  the  Marquis  Canozza,  the 
Imperial  Vicar  in  Italy,  to  speak  strongly  to 
the  Duke  of  Mantua,  and  to  deter  him  if 
possible,  from  doing  a  thing  so  contrary  to  the 
interests  of  the  whole  House  of  Austria;  and 
to  go  afterwards  to  Turin  and  Milan,  to 
concert  there  the  means  of  preventing  it,  in 
case  the  news  proved  true."  The  Duke,  who 
showed  no  disposition  to  break  his  engagement 

*To  Venice. 


TREASON  OF  COUNT  MATTIOLL         221 

with  Louis,  found  excuses  to  keep  the  Imperial 
Vicar  at  arm's  length.  Pinchesne  began  to  be 
in  dread  that  the  Spaniards,  more  and  more 
jealous  and  distrustful,  might  oppose  Charles's 
passage  through  the  Duchy  of  Milan,  and  that 
of  Mattioli,  "  whom  they  doubt  as  much." 

But  it  was  not  on  the  Duke  of  Mantua  or  on 
Mattioli  that  hands  were  laid.  Like  a 
thunderbolt  the  news  fell  upon  Versailles  that 
d'Asfeld  had  been  arrested  on  his  way  to 
Notre- Dame  d'Increa,  and  was  held  prisoner 
by  the  Governor  of  Milan*  in  the  interests  of 
the  Spaniards.  This  was  a  check  indeed  ;  and 
now  at  once  the  suspicions  of  the  French 
began  to  fasten  upon  Mattioli,  who  had  been 
the  first  to  send  the  news  of  d'Asfeld's  mis- 
fortune. Louis  and  his  agents,  it  is  true,  were 
unwilling  as  yet  to  consider  themselves  be- 
trayed :  the  seizure  of  d'Asfeld  might  have 
been  no  more  than  an  unlucky  accident ;    the 

*  The  Count  de  Melgar,  Spanish  Governor  of  the  Milanese. 


222         THE   MAN  IN  THE  IRON  MASK. 

affair  might  still  be  carried  through.  But  there 
was  no  time  to  lose.  The  24th  of  March  had 
come,  and  Mattioli  had  not  gone  to  Notre- 
Dame  d'Increa  and  the  Duke  had  not  gone  to 
Casale.  D'Estrades  (now  Ambassador  at 
Turin),  the  soul  of  the  enterprise  from  the 
first,  was  sending  courier  on  the  heels  of 
courier ;  to  Venice,  for  Pinchesne ;  to  Mantua, 
for  the  Duke ;  and  everywhere  in  Northern 
Italy  for  Mattioli.  Acting  upon  the  instruc- 
tions of  Pomponne,  the  French  agents  in  Italy 
were  careful  not  to  communicate  to  Mattioli 
their  doubts  of  his  good  faith  ;  but  d'Estrades 
wrote  him  a  letter  in  which  the  mailed  hand 
might  be  felt  through  the  glove. 

"  If,"  says  the  Abbe,  "  I  had  not  been  aware 
of  your  probity,  and  of  your  zeal  for  the 
interests  of  his  Majesty,  and  for  the  welfare  of 
the  Prince  to  whom  you  are  attached,  I  should 
have  been  seriously  uneasy  at  the  delay  of  our 
affair,    which    ought    without    fail,    and    at    the 


TREASON  OF  COUNT  MATTIOLI.         223 

latest,  to  have  been  concluded  at  the  beginning 
of  this  month.  But  although  we  are  already 
at  the  24th,  and  all  that  you  can  desire  on  our 
part  is  in  readiness,  I  cannot  bring  myself  to 
think  that  his  Highness's  intentions  and  your 
own  are  other  than  they  always  were.  You 
have  so  well  understood  how  useful  this  affair 
would  be  to  him  at  the  present  time,  and  how 
glorious  in  the  future,  and  you  have  so  ably 
represented  this  to  him,  that  I  cannot  permit 
myself  any  suspicions  on  this  head.  Neither 
can  I,  when  I  reflect  upon  the  very  consider- 
able interest  you  have  in  completing  an  under- 
taking of  such  importance,  the  conclusion  of 
which  will  be  esteemed  so  great  a  merit  on 
your  part  by  the  most  generous  and  the  most 
powerful  King  in  the  world,  who  has  himself 
testified    to    you    the    good-will    he    bears    you 

for   it As    his    word    has    always 

been  inviolable,  you  no  doubt  rely  implicitly 
upon    it ;     you     must     be     aware     also     how 


224         THE  MAN  IN  THE  IRON  MASK. 

dangerous  it  would  be  to  deceive  him  and 
that,  after  all  the  steps  he  has  taken,  and  the 
measures  he  has  agreed  upon,  you  would 
expose  his  Highness  and  yourself  to  very  great 
misfortunes  if  his  Majesty  had  reason  to  think 
that  faith  had  not  been  kept  with  him.,, 

But  March  went  out,  and  the  treaty  had  not 
been  ratified  ;  nor  had  Mattioli  and  the  Duke 
kept  their  appointments.  Versailles  is  all 
in  profound  uncertainty;  as  late  as  the  18th 
of  April,  we  have  Pomponne  writing  to 
Pinchesne — "  It  is  still  very  difficult  to  dis- 
cover what  is  the  real  case  with  this  affair,  and 
whether  the  good  faith  that  was  to  be  desired 
in  it  has  been  kept.  Try  to  discover  this 
adroitly,  but  without  showing  any  suspicions  ; 
and  be  careful  to  inform  me  of  everything  that 
shall  come  to  your  knowledge  on  the  subject." 
Writing  again  on  the  following  day,  the 
minister  makes  it  sufficiently  plain  that  his 
own    suspicions    of    Mattioli's     treachery     are 


TREASON  OF  COUNT  MATT10L1.  225 

confirmed ;  and  respecting  the  Duke,  he 
says :  "  In  truth,  this  Prince  should  not  be 
allowed  to  think  that  it  is  permitted  him  to 
fail  in  a  treaty  he  has  made  with  his  Majesty. 
If  the  occasion  should  present  itself,  make  it 
appear  to  him  that  you  cannot  doubt  his  keep- 
ing the  promises  which  have  been  made  to 
the  King."  This  suggests  that,  with  or 
without  Mattioli,  it  may  still  be  possible,  in 
the  opinion  of  Versailles,  to  bring  the  scheme 
to  an  issue  of  success. 

In  a  moment  that  hope  was  extinguished 
and  annihilated.  Intelligence  of  everything 
that  had  taken  place  between  Louis  XIV.  and 
Charles  of  Mantua  was  conveyed  simultane- 
ously to  the  Courts  of  Turin,  Madrid,  Vienna, 
to  the  Spanish  Governor  of  the  Milanese.,  and 
to  the  Inquisitors  of  State  of  the  Venetian 
Republic 

"  To  all,  in  a  word,  who  were  most  inter- 
ested in  opposing  the  execution  of  the  project, 

15 


226         THE  MAN  IN  THE  IRON  MASK. 

it  was  known  point  by  point :  the  price  of 
the  cession,  the  date  at  which  it  was  to^be 
made,  the  names  of  the  negotiators.  They 
knew  everything,  because  they  had  received 
at  sundry  times  the  confidences  of  the  prin- 
cipal and  best-instructed  among  the  actors  in 
the  intrigue — of  Count  Mattioli  himself."  * 

It  was  true — Mattioli  had  played  the  traitor. 
He  had  sold  his  master ;  he  had  sold  and 
made  a  jest  of  the  Omnipotence  of  France. 

*  Topin. 


227 


CHAPTER   IV. 

"  Never   was   seen,"    exclaims    Pom- 

The  Vengeance  .  1  i  r  i 

ponne,      in      a      despatch      ot      the 

of  ••  the  Most   r  r 

Generous"  3rd  of  May,  "  so  signal  a  piece 
of  perfidy ! " 
Maria  Baptista  of  Nemours,*  Duchess  and 
Regent  of  Savoy,  and  one  of  her  ministers, 
President  Turki,  or  Trucci,  were  the  first 
who  had  received  the  confidences  of  Mattioli. 
To  the  Duchess  he  had  shown  the  original 
documents  of  the  negotiations,  of  which  she 
had  taken  copies:  facts  which  she  herself  com- 
municated to  Louis  XIV.  Mattioli  had  seen 
the  President  at  Turin.  He  had  given  in- 
formation to  the  Spaniards,  and  had  accepted 

*  Mother  of  Victor  Amadeus  II.,  at  this  time  a  minor. 

15* 


228         THE  MAN  IN  THE  IRON  MASK. 

a  cipher  from  the  Spanish  Governor  of 
Milan.  He  had  had  secret  interviews  with 
one  of  the  Inquisitors  of  State  at  Venice. 
All  this,  with  sundry  pleas  and  glosses, 
Mattioli  afterwards  confessed  to  Catinat.* 

The  real  motive  or  motives  of  this  whole- 
sale treason  will  never  be  clearly  known,  for 
they  were  never  divulged  by  Mattioli ;  and 
we  have  little  choice  but  to  acquiesce  in  the 
general  conclusion,  which  is — in  M.  Funck- 
Brentano's  words — that  he  had  cynically  be- 
trayed both  his  master  and  Louis  XIV.,  in 
order  to  reap  a  double  harvest  of  gold. 
Topin  asks  generously  whether  this  '■  gross 
cupidity "  is  the  sole  explanation;  and  sug- 
gests that,  "  shaken  to  his  soul,  and  illumined 
by  the  sudden  apparition  of  his  country  in 
danger,"  Mattioli  in  remorse  may  have  fallen 
back  upon  the  one  and  only  means  of  check- 
ing the  advance  of  Louis.      But  this  palliative, 

*  Catinat  to  Louvois ;  May  ioth,  1679. 


"THE  MOST  GENEROUS"  KING.        229 

well  as  it  becomes  its  author,  is  not  easy 
of  acceptance  ;  for  the  conduct  of  Mattioli, 
after  his  return  from  France,  bears  every 
appearance  of  trickery  and  duplicity.  If  he 
designed  to  save  Italy  from  Louis,  he  hid 
his  project  from  his  master,  the  Duke  of 
Mantua ;  and  he  certainly  did  not  return,  as 
he  should  have  done,  the  French  King's 
presents.  These  are  Topin's  own  admissions, 
and  he  has  manifestly  little  faith  in  the 
hypothesis  which  his  good-nature  propounds. 
Mattioli  had  presumably  acted  with  his 
eyes  open,  but  he  seems  to  have  taken  no 
measures  for  his  own  safety  in  the  event  ot 
detection  ;  and  the  discovery  of  his  treason 
had  left  him  in  a  terrible  situation.  Charles 
of  Mantua  repudiated  him,  declaring  that  he 
had  never  authorised  any  negotiations  for  the 
sale  or  occupation  of  Casale.  But  Charles 
the  insouciant  was  scarcely  a  dangerous 
enemy  ;   and    it    is    probable    that,     while    he 


23o         THE  MAN  IN   THE  IRON  MASK. 

might  be  willing  to  assist  in  his  punishment, 
Mattioli  had  not  much  to  fear  from  him. 
His  real  danger  lay  elsewhere.  D'Estrades 
had  beheld  with  feelings  of  mortification  and 
intense  bitterness  the  failure  of  a  project  in 
which  he  had  had  from  the  first  the  closest 
personal  interest.  The  details  were  his,  the 
negotiations  had  been  begun  by  him,  he  it 
was  who  had  selected  Mattioli,  and  it  was 
by  him  that  Mattioli  had  been  introduced  at 
the  Court  of  France.  Louvois,  for  his  part, 
had  been  baffled  in  the  execution  of  the 
plans  he  had  so  adroitly  laid  ;  and  a  French 
minister  beaten  at  his  own  game  of  intrigue 
by  an  Italian  adventurer  was  little  likely  to 
find  himself  in  the  humour  of  forgiveness. 
D'Estrades  and  Louvois,  moreover,  had  acted 
not  for  themselves  but  for  their  master  the 
King  ;  and  when  the  projects  of  Kings  are 
confounded  their  ministers  are  very  apt  to  be 
held  blameworthy. 


O       be 


"THE  MOST  GENEROUS"  KING.       233 

But  there  was  a  vengeance  infinitely  more 
to  be  dreaded  than  that  of  either  Louvois  or 
D'Estrades.  Mattioli  had  drawn  upon  himself' 
the  resentment,  the  implacable  resentment, 
of  Louis  XIV.  True,  Louis  had  not  at  this 
time  lost  all  hope  of  securing  Casale ;  but, 
for  the  immediate  present,  it  was  not  Casale 
that  filled  his  thoughts  :  it  was  the  unspeak- 
able, the  incredible  effrontery  of  the  man 
who  had  outwitted,  cheated,  and  flouted  him 
in  the  face  of  Europe.  Europe  was  ringing 
with  the  discomfiture  of  Louis ;  Europe  was 
silently  laughing  at  the  Grand  Monarque. 
It  is  necessary  to  recall  his  position  among 
the  Powers  of  that  day,  the  splendid  successes 
that  had  attended  his  arms,  and  his  almost 
dictatorial  attitude  towards  the  Sovereigns 
his  contemporaries,  in  order  to  appreciate 
the  extent  of  the  humiliation  which  Mattioli's 
treachery  had  brought  upon  the  King  of 
France.       "  The    most    generous "    King  was 


234         THE  MAN  IN  THE  IRON  MASK. 

d'Estrades's  description  of  him.  It  was  the 
unlucky  fate  of  Nicolas  Fouquet  to  submit 
to  the  test  the  generosity  of  Louis  XIV. 
towards  one  whom  he  feared  even  in  defeat. 
"  Let  us  be  content  with  banishing  this  man," 
Fouquet's  judges  had  said.  "  No,"  said  the 
King:  "he  shall  end  his  days  in  prison." 
And  that  was  in  the  green  tree,  and  it  was 
now  the  dry  :  Louis  was  in  his  forty-first 
year.  Again,  what  was  Fouquet's  offence 
in  comparison  with  that  of  Mattioli  ?  Fou- 
quet had  enriched  himself  at  the  State's 
expense,  and  he  had  courted  and  had  won 
a  popularity  which  fretted  the  King's  com- 
placency. But  he  had  not  broken  faith  with 
Louis,  he  had  not  contemptuously  bartered 
his  interests,  he  had  not  openly  made  light 
of  that  jealous  and  sensitive  dignity — he  had 
not  given  Europe  the  opportunity  to  smirk 
over  the  humbling  defeat  of  a  Roi  Soleil. 
Fouquet,    for    his    popularity    in     Paris,    died 


"THE  MOST  GENEROUS"   KING.        235 

an  old,  sick  man,  in  the  dungeon  of  Pignerol. 
What  fate  should  Mattioli  look  for  ? 

Abbe  d'Estrades  was  to  have  the  pleasure 
of  suggesting  it.  He  proposed  to  Versailles 
that  Mattioli  should  be  seized,  abducted,  and 
imprisoned  "  at  the  King's  pleasure."  Illegal 
arrests  and  imprisonments  were  not  extra- 
ordinary in  France  at  any  date  before  the 
Revolution  ;  but  the  case  of  Mattioli  was 
unusual.  He  was,  as  Ellis  says  :  "  actually 
the  plenipotentiary  of  the  Duke  of  Mantua, 
for  concluding  a  treaty  with  the  King  of 
France."  Although  his  treachery  was  known, 
it  had  not  been  proved  against  him ;  and, 
from  the  standpoint  of  international  law,  it  is 
not  an  argument  that  the  Duke  of  Mantua 
was  a  prince  of  no  political  consequence. 
The  proposal  to  seize  and  carry  off  his 
minister  was,  in  the  circumstances,  a  proposal 
of  brigandage.  But  it  came  pat  to  Louis's 
purpose  and   intention    of  revenge.      He  saw 


236         THE  MAN  IN  THE  IRON  MASK. 

the  illegality  of  it ;  but,  if  it  could  be  effected 
without  scandal,  he  asked  nothing  better. 
Absolute  secrecy  in  the  business  of  the  arrest 
was  all  that  he  demanded — and  his  private 
authorisation  to  d'Estrades  was  modified  only 
by  this  condition — "that  you  get  him  carried 
off  without  the  least  suspicion  of  scandal." 

Satisfied  by  d'Estrades  upon  this  point, 
Louis  sanctioned  the  kidnapping  of  Mattioli. 
He  was  to  be  conveyed  to  Pignerol,  and 
kept  there  "in  the  strictest  secrecy."  "Look 
to  it,"  ran  the  closing  words  of  the  King's 
order,  "  that  no  one  knows  what  becomes 
of  this  man." 

This  was  followed  by  the  despatch  of 
Louvois  to  Saint-Mars  at  Pignerol,  dictated 
by  Louis,  the  tone  of  which  is  eloquent  of 
the  mood  that  inspired  it  : — 

"  Saint-Germain,  April  27th,  1679. 
"  The   King  has  sent  orders   to  the  Abbe 


"  THE  MOST  GENEROUS"  KING.        237 

d'Estrades  to  procure  the  arrest  of  a  man  with 
whose  conduct  his  Majesty  has  reason  to  be 
displeased.  I  am  commanded  to  acquaint 
you  with  this,  in  order  that  you  may  not 
hesitate  to  receive  him  when  he  is  sent  to 
you.  You  will  guard  him  in  such  a  manner 
that,  not  only  may  he  have  no  communication 
with  anyone,  but  that  he  may  have  cause  to 
repent  his  conduct,  and  that  no  one  may  know 
you  have  a  new  prisoner. 

"  De  Louvois." 

Instructions  in  these  terms  imposed  the 
necessity  of  a  ruse  ;  but  the  Abbe  d'Estrades, 
keen  upon  requitals,  was  ready  there. 
Mattioli,  whose  subalpine  shrewdness  seems 
to  have  missed  him  at  this  highest  crisis  of 
his  life,  was  quite  unaware  that  Louis  and 
his  agents  had  unriddled  him.  He  did  not 
know  that  the  Duchess  of  Savoy  had  sent 
to  Versailles  the  copies  of  the  papers  he  had 


238         THE  MAN  IN  THE  IRON  MASK. 

shown  her.  His  utter  ignorance  of  the 
danger  he  stood  in  made  it  easy  to  set  the 
trap  that  must  catch  him. 

Although  vengeance  was  certainly  the  first 
motive  of  Mattioli's  arrest,  there  was  another 
which,  if  the  negotiations  for  Casale  were 
to  be  proceeded  with,  was  not  unimportant. 
The  Varano  who  had  all  along  been  privy 
to  the  affair,  had  instructed  d'Estrades, 
through  the  assiduous  Giuliani,  that  the  Duke 
of  Mantua  would  go  no  further  with  it  while 
Mattioli  was  at  large.  The  Duke  himself 
appears  to  have  been  averse  from,  or  at  all 
events  not  inclined  to,  a  personal  reckoning 
with  the  agent  in  whom  he  had  implicitly 
confided  ;  but  he  was  willing  enough  that 
Mattioli  should  be  brought  to  book  by  any- 
body else.  D'Estrades  also  learned  from 
Varano  that  Mattioli  had  privately  obtained 
Charles's  signature  to  the  treaty  (for  what 
reason,    unless  with    an    eye   to    blackmail,    it 


"THE  MOST  GENEROUS"  KING.        239 

is  impossible  to  conjecture),  and  had  kept 
the  original  document,  with  all  other  papers 
bearing  on  the  negotiations.  By  what  means, 
asked  d'Estrades  of  Pomponne,  were  these 
likely  to  be  secured,  unless  by  the  arrest  of 
Mattioli  ?  That  act,  therefore,  while  gratify- 
ing the  vengeance  of  Louis  and  his  ministers, 
would  render  possible  a  renewal  of  the  nego- 
tiations, and  would  be  far  from  displeasing  to 
the  Duke  of  Mantua,  whom  it  was  desirable  to 
retain  in  friendship. 

Mattioli  was  now  again  in  Turin,  where, 
as  we  have  seen,  d'Estrades  was  installed 
as  French  Ambassador ;  he  was  still  visit- 
ing the  Abbe,  and  talking  and  acting  as 
though  he  were  as  busy  as  ever  in  the 
matter  of  Casale.  D'Estrades,  with  Nemesis 
in  his  heart,  entertained  him  smoothly  ;  and 
affected  always  to  believe  that  everything 
was  secure.  Through  Giuliani,  who  was 
solid     throughout     in     the     interests     of    the 


24o         THE  MAN  IN  THE  IRON  MASK. 

French,  d'Estrades  learned  that  Mattioli  was 
seeking  money.  His  expenses  in  France, 
his  journeys  to  and  fro  in  Italy,  and  his 
bribes  to  win  over  the  Duke's  mistresses, 
had  drained  his  purse.  D'Estrades  sug- 
gested a  ready  means  of  replenishing  it. 
Catinat  (he  said),  who  commanded  the 
French  troops  that  were  to  take  possession 
of  Casale,  was  furnished,  by  the  King's 
order,  with  ample  means  ;  and  was  prepared, 
by  the  King's  order,  to  meet  every  expense 
that  might  arise.  Mattioli  took  the  bait. 
'*  Being  one  of  the  most  consummate  rogues 
that  ever  lived"  ("Comme  il  est  un  des  plus 
grands  fripons  qui  ait  jamais  este "),  wrote 
D'Estrades,  "  this  hint  of  mine  made  him 
desperately   eager    to    meet    Catinat." 

Catinat  was  warned,  and  the  meeting  was 
arranged.  It  was  to  be  at  a  spot  "  on 
the  frontier  towards  Pignerol  " — Catinat,  said 
d'Estrades,     not    being    able    "  to    leave     the 


"THE  MOST  GENEROUS"   KING.       241 

neighbourhood  where  his  troops  were 
stationed."  D'Estrades,  not  anxious  to  risk 
his  skin,  stipulated  for  "  a  few  well-armed 
men  "  in  Catinat's  company  :  "  as  I  know 
that  Mattioli  always  carries  two  pistols  in 
his  pocket,  and  two  others,  with  a  poniard, 
in    his   belt." 

D'Estrades  gave  him  rendez-vous  at  six 
o'clock  on  the  morning  of  the  2nd  of  May, 
1679,  at  a  church  on  the  outskirts  of  Turin  : 
they  were  to  drive  thence  to  the  frontier. 
Unfriendly  fortune  led  Mattioli  to  the  meet- 
ing-place. For  months  he  had  failed  in  the 
appointments  which  it  would  have  profited 
him  to  keep  ;  but  he  was  punctual  at  the 
one  fatal  tryst  of  his  life.  D'Estrades  had 
with  him  in  his  carriage  a  cousin,  the  Abbe 
de  Montesquieu  ;  and  in  this  company  Count 
Mattioli  set  out  for  the  frontier. 

There    had    been    heavy     rains    for    three 

days,    and    the    streams    of   that    wild    region 

16 


242         THE  MAN  IN  THE  IRON  MASK. 

were  pouring  over  their  banks.  One  of 
these,  the  Guisiola,  not  far  from  the  spot 
where  Catinat  waited  with  his  men-at-arms, 
the  Abbe's  party  must  cross  ;  but  the  bridge 
had  been  damaged  by  the  flood,  and  the 
horses  could  only  ford  the  stream  by  swim- 
ming. This,  apparently,  the  Abbe,  precious 
of  his  charge,  declined  to  risk  ;  but  it  was 
possible  to  make  the  bridge  safe  for  foot- 
passage,  and  to  work  they  went — Mattioli 
himself,  says  d'Estrades,  "helping  so  bravely, 
that  in  an  hour  we  were  able  to  get  across.' ' 
The  carriage  was  left  behind,  the  Abbe 
congratulating  himself  on  getting  rid  of  his 
servants,  "as  this  ensured  us  a  greater 
measure  of  secrecy."  The  journey  was  con- 
tinued on  foot,  "dans  des  chemins  fort 
mauvais "  ;  and  Catinat,  bearing  in  his  hands 
the  vengeance  of  Louis,  awaited  them  at 
the  chosen  spot.  "  M.  Catinat,"  writes  the 
Abbe,    "  had    made   his   arrangements   so   well 


"THE  MOST  GENEROUS"   KING.        243 

that  not  a  creature  appeared  with  him. 
He  led  us  into  a  room  "  ;  and  then,  before 
the  real  object  of  the  meeting  was  declared, 
d'Estrades  adroitly  and  insensibly  admonished 
Mattioli  "  respecting  all  the  original  papers 
belonging  to  our  affair."  Mattioli,  who  must 
now  at  last  have  begun  to  realise  his 
danger,  said  that  all  the  papers  were  in 
a  box  at  Bologna,  in  the  hands  of  his 
wife,  who  had  retired  to  the  convent  of 
the  Nuns  of  St.  Louis.  Upon  this,  deeming 
his  presence  not  necessary  in  the  scene  that 
was  to  follow,  d'Estrades  withdrew,  accom- 
panied by  his  cousin  ;  and  Mattioli  was  left 
with  Catinat.  At  two  in  the  afternoon, 
Saint-Mars  had  him  under  lock  in  the  dun- 
geon  of  Pignerol. 

Catinat's  despatch  to  Louvois  (Pignerol, 
May  3rd,  1679)  is  of  soldier-like  direct- 
ness:—  "I    arrested    Mattioli   yesterday,   three 

miles  from   here,    upon  the   King's  territories, 

16* 


244         THE  MAN  IN  THE  IRON  MASK. 

during  the  interview  which  the  Abbe 
d'Estrades  had  ingeniously  contrived  between 
him,  Mattioli,  and  myself,  to  facilitate  the 
scheme.  For  the  arrest,  I  employed  only 
the  Chevaliers  de  Saint-Martin  and  de 
Villebois,  two  officers  of  M.  de  Saint-Mars, 
and  four  men  of  his  company.  It  was 
effected  without  the  least  violence,  and  no 
one  knows  the  rogue's  name,  not  even  the 
officers  who  assisted.  He  is  in  the  cham- 
ber which  Dubreuil  occupied,  where  he  will 
be  civilly  treated,  according  to  the  request 
of  the  Abbe  d'Estrades,  until  the  wishes 
of  the  King  with  regard  to  him  are 
known."  * 

*  "Finally,"  says  M.  Funck-Brentano,  "we  have  a  very  curious 
pamphlet  entitled  La  Prudenza  trionfante  di  Casale,  written  in  1682, 
that  is,  little  more  than  two  years  after  the  event,  and— this  slight  de- 
tail is  of  capital  importance — thirty  years  before  there  was  any  talk  of 
the  Man  in  the  Mask.  In  this  we  read  :  '  The  Secretary  (Mattioli)  was 
surrounded  by  ten  or  twelve  horsemen,  who  seized  him,  disguised  him, 
masked  him,  and  conducted  him  to  Pignerol ' — a  fact,  moreover,  con- 
firmed by  a  tradition  which  in  the  eighteenth  century  was  still  rife  in 
the  district,  where  scholars  succeeded  in  culling  it." 


"THE  MOST  GENEROUS"   KING.         245 

Among  the  papers  taken  on  Mattioli's 
person  were  none  of  the  series  emanating 
from  Versailles.  These  it  was  essential  to 
secure  ;  they  were  the  tangible  proofs  of 
Louis's  failure.  Mattioli  had  said  they 
would  be  found  at  Bologna.  They  were 
not  there.  Under  threats  of  torture  and 
of  death,  the  prisoner  at  length  confessed 
that  the  original  papers  were  at  Padua, 
"  concealed  in  a  hole  in  the  wall  of  a 
room,  in  his  father's  house."  Thereupon  a 
letter  was  dictated,  in  which,  without  a  word 
that  could  betray  his  situation,  Mattioli  was 
made  to  request  his  father  to  deliver  the 
documents  to  Giuliani.  The  father,  suspect- 
ing nothing,  handed  them  over  :  Pinchesne 
presently  received  them  all  ;  and  they  were 
forwarded,  with  rigorous  care,  to  Versailles. 

Louis  XIV.  was  avenged.  If  he  had 
received  at  the  hands  of  the  petty  minister 
of    a    petty    prince     his    first     serious    check 


246         THE  MAN  IN  THE  IRON  MASK. 

in  Europe,  his  retaliation  had  been  swift 
and  terrible.  Nor  did  Europe  enjoy  for 
long  the  spectacle  of  the  potent  King's 
defeat.  The  guilty  principal  in  the  affair 
had  already  vanished  from  the  sight  and 
knowledge  of  men,  into  the  entrails  of 
Pignerol,  and  would  be  beheld  of  them  no 
more.  The  official  proofs  of  the  aborted 
enterprise  were  not  less  secure  under 
Louis's  hands  than  was  Mattioli  in  the 
wardenship  of  Saint-Mars.  The  French 
troops  had  been  withdrawn  as  secretly  as 
they  had  been  assembled  at  BrianQon.  The 
whole  scheme  was  renounced  so  promptly 
that,  in  Topin's  phrase,  it  seemed,  in  a 
manner,  as  though  it  had  never  been 
begun.*      The    Court   of  Savoy   undoubtedly 

*  Not,  however,  that  Louis  had  really  abandoned  his  project.  He 
wanted  it  forgotten  only  until  such  time  as  he  could  accomplish  it  with- 
out possibility  of  failure.  The  negotiations  were  resumed  two  years 
later ;  and  on  the  30th  of  September,  1681,  the  French  troops  were  re- 
ceived into  Casale. 


"THE  MOST  GENEROUS"   KING.        247 

had  a  full  knowledge  of  the  intrigue  ; 
"but  Louis  XIV.  spoke  with  a  master's 
authority  at  Turin."  Mattioli  had  un- 
doubtedly made  disclosures  at  Venice  as 
at  Milan  ;  but  those  beguiling  lips  were 
sealed  eternally  behind  the  bastions  and 
demi-lunes  of  Pignerol.  And  the  affronted 
King  bore  himself  as  high  as  ever.  He 
demanded  and  obtained  from  Spain  the 
immediate  release  of  Baron  d'Asfeld,  im- 
prisoned at  Milan  ;  and  the  censure  of 
Melgar,  the  governor.  At  all  points,  and 
in  a  space  of  time  the  briefest,  Louis  re- 
covered the  prestige  which  for  a  moment 
he  had  sacrificed  ;  and  his  personal  pride, 
at  once  delicate  and  vengeful,  was  best 
solaced  by  the  certainty  that  he  had  swept, 
as  he  thought,  into  eternal  oblivion  the 
agent  and  chief  witness  of  his  short  dis- 
credit. Mattioli  was  given  out  as  dead : 
a    story    was    circulated     that     he     had    met 


248         THE  MAN  IN  THE  IRON  MASK. 

with  a  fatal  accident  on  a  journey.  The 
Duke  of  Mantua  might  have  doubted  this, 
and  probably  did  doubt  it  ;  but  he  had 
sufficient  reason  for  wishing  out  of  his  path 
the  agent  who,  for  objects  of  his  own,  had 
striven  his  best  to  ruin  him  with  Louis 
XIV. 

And  the  family  of  Mattioli — why  were 
they  silent  ?  Upon  this  point,  history  has 
bequeathed  us  the  curious  legacy  of  an  un- 
finished tragedy — curious  to  us,  who  can 
follow  the  tragedy  to  its  end.  Did  his 
family  also  believe  him  dead,  or  were  they 
cowed  and  voiceless  under  the  stroke  of 
Louis's  wrath  ?  It  is  not  known.  What 
alone  is  certain  is,  that  he  was  never  found 
by  them  again.  The  letter  dictated  to 
Mattioli,  and  signed  under  compulsion,  was 
the  last  that  his  father  received  from  him. 
His  wife  died  in  the  convent  of  the  Filles 
de    Saint- Louis    at    Bologna,    while    he  .  was 


"THE  MOST  GENEROUS"   KING.        249 

still  a  hopeless  prisoner  :  there  is  no  record 
to  show  that  his  fate  was  known  to  her. 
The  space  within  the  genealogical  tree  of 
the  family,  which  the  date  of  Mattioli's 
death  should  fill,  is  blank.*  Louis's  ven- 
geance smote  deep  :  in  annihilating  the  man, 
it  had  crushed  the  family  ;  and  perhaps 
nothing  is  sadder  in  the  memories  of  this 
mystery  of  two  hundred  years,  apart  from 
the  fate  of  the  Mask  himself,  than  the 
wretched  ignorance  in  which  his  abduction 
and    living    burial    left    his    nearest    kin. 

*  Topin  :   citing  the  Arbor  prisac  nobilisque  masculine?  families  de 
Mattiolis. 


250 


The 


CHAPTER  V. 

Good  night,   good  night  ! 

Romeo  and  Juliet. 

May  be  seen  to-day,  on  the  flanks 
Dungeon  of  of    Alpine   heights,    near   the   source 

Pigneroi  Qf  tke  streams  which  go  to  form 
the  rich  basin  of  the  Po,  the  ruins  of 
the  dungeon  wherein  Mattioli  began  the 
long  night  of  his  captivity.  Close  by  stands 
the  Cathedral  church  of  Saint-Maurice,  "  dou 
la  vue  embrasse,"  says  Topin,  "  le  plus 
riant   horizon." 

As  different  as  might  be  was  the  face  dis- 
closed by  Pigneroi  on  the  day  that  Catinat 
carried  in  his  prisoner  through  the  Safety 
Gate — the  small  secure  postern  which  led 
straight  into  the  recesses  of  the  dungeon.  A 
citadel,  a  dungeon :  around  the  citadel  a  town, 


THE  DUNGEON   OF  PIGNEROL.         251 

itself  enclosed  within  vast  fortifications,  at  the 
entrance  of  the  valley  of  the  Perouse,  on  the 
river  Chisone,  seven  leagues  south-west  of 
Turin,  twenty-eight  from  Nice,  and  thirty 
east  of  Grenoble — such  was  Pignerol,  the 
Piedmontese  town   of  the    17th  century.* 

The  little  town,  which,  as  early  as  the  12th 
century,  the  princes  of  Savoy  had  fortified 
for  the  surety  of  their  possessions,  climbed 
upwards  in  the  form  of  an  amphitheatre  ; 
with  russet  roofs  and  slender  campaniles  and 
clusters  of  turret-fashioned  chimneys.  A 
moat  isolated  the  citadel  from  the  town  ;  and 
from  the  citadel  the  eye  followed  a  double 
line  of  solid  walls,  forming  a  huge  paral- 
lelogram, with  four  high  towers  for  supports  : 
in  the  midst  of  all,  the  great  square  keep  or 
dungeon,  black  of  aspect,  "  aux  fenetres 
bardees  de  fer."  The  fortifications  were 
composed    of  a  series  of  bastions,  half-moons, 

*  lung. 


252         THE  MAN  IN  THE  IRON  MASK. 

and  counter-guards.  The  two  main  gates  of 
the  town  were  named  of  France  and  of 
Turin  ;  the  secret  or  Safety  Gate  was 
opened  at  rare  times  to  admit  by  stealth 
some  prisoner  whose  guards  had  been 
ordered  not  to  take  him  through  the  town. 

This  little  mountain  bourg  of  Pignerol,* 
peopled  by  French  troops  and  Italian  sub- 
jects, was  not  inconsiderable  in  the  17th 
century.  The  officers  in  chief  were  the 
governor  general,  the  commandant  of  the 
town,  the  King's  lieutenant  governing  the 
citadel,  the  commandant  of  the  dungeon,  the 
members  of  the  council  of  war,  and  of  the 
"  conseil  souverain  "  ;  a  fair  posse  for  a 
world  so  tiny.  There  was  the  perpetual 
va-et-vient  of  a  frontier  place  :  officers  from 
Paris  or  Turin,  rejoining  their  regiments  in 
the  army  of  Italy,  passed  through  ;  there  was 
much  traffic  and  some  commerce. 

*  Ital..  Pinerolo. 


THE  DUNGEON  OF  PIGNEROL.         253 

At  the  time  of  the  coming  of  Mattioli  to 
Pignerol,  the  dungeon  of  that  place  had 
been  for  fourteen  years  the  charge  of 
.Benigne  d'Auvergne  de  Saint-Mars,  seigneur 
of  Dimon  and  of  Palteau,  bailli  and  governor 
of  Sens.  Born  in  1626,  in  the  environs  of 
Montfort  l'Amaury,  Saint-Mars  died  in  the 
Bastille,  its  governor,  September  26th,  1708, 
in  his  eighty-second  year.  At  the  age  of 
twelve  he  had  entered,  as  "  enfant  de 
troupe,"  the  First  Company  of  the  King's 
Musketeers.  In  1650  he  was  a  full  musketeer 
of  that  Company  ;  in  1660,  brigadier  ;  and 
"  marechal  des  logis,"  or  quarter-master,  in 
1664.  The  year  following,  1665,  saw  him  in 
command  of  the  dungeon  of  Pignerol,  in 
which  command  he  continued  until  he  went 
to  the  fortress  of  Exiles  in  1681.  Louis  XIV. 
granted  him  a  patent  of  nobility  in  1673. 
At  the  date  we  are  arrived  at  (1679),  Saint- 
Mars  was  in  his    fifty-fourth   year  ;  of  sinister 


254         THE   MAN  IN  THE  IRON  MASK. 

renown    in    Pignerol :    the   gaoler    quintessen- 
tialised. 

lung  calls  him  "  un  vrai  bouledogue," 
but  that  term  is  applicable  chiefly  in  the 
moral  sense.  Observe  him  outwardly,  as  he 
creeps,  almost  a-tiptoe,  through  the  mazes  of 
his  prison  :  a  small  shrivelled  person, 
shadowy  of  figure,  wizen  and  dark  of  face, 
little  head  bobbing  nervously  betwixt  the 
narrow  shoulders,  arms  and  hands  twitching. 
"  A  mortal  ugly  little  man,  looking  eighty 
at  the  least  ;  all  bent  and  tottering  ;  inces- 
santly in  a  passion ;  swearing  and  blas- 
pheming horribly ;  inexorably  cruel."  This 
is  the  unsympathetic  portrait  left  of  him  by 
Constantin  de  Renneville,  a  prisoner  of  the 
Bastille  when  Saint-Mars  was  about  seventy- 
four.  "  Inexorablv  cruel  "  seems  not  alto- 
gether  just  ;  indeed,  I  find  few  traces  of 
active  cruelty  in  Saint- Mars's  career  as 
gaoler  ;  but  a  man  so  inflexible  and  so  callous 


V 


THE  DUNGEON  OF  PIGNEROL.         255 

in  doing  the  bidding  of  King  or  minister  could 
be  nothing  but  the  ogre  of  his  prison. 

It  is  proper  to  spare  him  the  charge  of 
unnecessary  cruelty,  for  his  memory  is  void  of 
sympathy  :  on  the  one  side,  an  unimaginative 
pedant  who  has  no  rule  for  his  prison  but 
the  strictest  letter  of  his  orders  from  Ver- 
sailles ;  on  the  other,  a  mean  and  greedy 
type  of  the  soldier  of  fortune,  always 
whining  for  money  and  always  bemoaning 
his  lot.  He  had  peculiar  relations  with  the 
minister  Louvois.  His  wife's  sister  was 
Louvois's  mistress,  and  he  can  ask  nothing 
of  Louvois  which  Louvois  does  not  grant. 
The  ideal  gaoler,  harassed  incessantly  by 
fears  for  the  safety  of  his  prisoners,  he 
packs  his  coffers  with  the  moneys  sent  him 
for  their  keep.  Holding  them  as  wards  of 
the  King,  whom  he  served  like  a  slave, 
watching  them  so  closely  that  he  was  himself 
a  prisoner  in  his  own  prisons    for    over  forty 


256         THE  MAN  IN  THE  IRON  MASK. 

years,  these  charges  of  his  were  still,  in  his 
private  view,  his  "  sitting  hens"*  ("aux 
ceufs  d'or ")  ;  and  they  were  a  fortune  to 
him.  He  left  silver  plate,  furniture,  jewels, 
six  hundred  thousand  francs  of  ready  money, 
and  seign,eurial  property  worth  ten  million 
francs.  Among  the  governors  of  the  prison- 
fortresses  of  France,  most  of  whom  enriched 
themselves  at  the  cost  of  their  prisoners  and 
of  the  State,  the  position  and  the  possessions 
of  Saint-Mars  were  unique.  As  commandant 
of  the  dungeon  of  Pignerol  he  held  his 
authority  directly  from  the  minister,  owing 
no  responsibility  either  to  the  governor 
general  or  to  the  King's  lieutenant  ;  as 
Louvois's  relative  (upon  the  left)  he  held  the 
minister  in  fee  ;  and  what  he  asked  of  him 
was  granted   in  advance. 

But,    as  the  prince  of  gaolers,    Saint-Mars 
was    worth    humouring.      His    discretion    was 

*  lung. 


THE  DUNGEON  OF  PIGNEROL.         257 

proof  against  all  temptation  ;  and  such  was 
his  habit  of  distrust,  in  what  concerned  his 
prisoners,  that  the  distrustful  Louvois  him- 
self found  it  possible  at  times  to  chide  his 
over-caution.  Uneasy,  timorous,  and  taciturn, 
the  duties  of  his  office  gave  him  never  a 
moment's  rest.  The  King's  orders  were 
fulfilled  with  a  servile  exactitude  :  to  discuss 
them,  says  Topin,  would  have  seemed  a 
crime,  to  seek  to  interpret  them  was  super- 
fluous. No  prison  wall  was  high  enough  or 
stout  enough,  no  moat  was  deep  enough 
or  wide  enough,  no  bars  or  bolts  were 
strong  enough,  no  sentinel  was  watchful 
enough,  no  spy  alert  enough  to  keep  that 
anxious  soul  at  rest.  He  carries  every 
detail  of  his  cares  to  Louvois ;  matters  the 
most  puerile  are  constantly  rehearsed  in  his 
despatches.  Does  a  stranger  come  to  the 
town  on  business  or  a  visit  of  pleasure  ;  if 
his     sojourn      is     prolonged,      Saint-Mars     is 

17 


258         THE  MAN  IN   THE  IRON  MASK. 

certain  that  a  plot  is  hatching  to  carry  off 
some  prisoner  from  the  dungeon.  Nay,  if 
the  stranger  shows  some  little  curiosity  con- 
cerning the  citadel,  Saint-Mars  arrests  him  out 
of  hand,  and  holds  him  captive  during  a  pro- 
longed examination.  "  Lists  of  the  travellers 
coming  to  Pignerol  were  drawn  up  for  him 
every  month,  that  he  might  see  what  names 
occurred  too  frequently.  The  prisoners'  linen 
before  being  sent  out  of  the  dungeon,  was 
soaked  in  water,  then  dried  before  a  fire  in 
the  presence  of  officers  who  had  to  make 
sure  that  nothing  had  been  written  upon  it. 
The  smallest  change  in  the  habits  of  his 
prisoners  drove  Saint-Mars  into  a  fever  of 
anxiety.  In  everything  they  did,  and  in 
everything  they  abstained  from  doing,  he 
saw  the  signal  of  some  criminal  attempt  ;  and 
one  day,  after  his  usual  visit  to  Fouquet  and 
Lauzun,  and  his  rigorous  examination  of  their 
rooms,      discovering      nothing      out      of     the 


-co 


THE  DUNGEON  OF  PIGNEROL.         261 

common,  he  was  first  surprised,  and  then 
exceedingly  alarmed.  The  absence  of  any- 
apparent  signal  was  in  itself  a  signal  for 
him.  .  .  .  After  reading  his  naive  and 
sincere  correspondence,  one  is  tempted  to 
pity  him  almost  as  much  as  the  prisoners 
in  his  keeping  ;  since,  enjoying  a  scarcely 
greater  liberty  than  they  did,  the  perpetual 
fears  that  he  suffered  on  their  account 
rendered  him  in  some  sort  their  victim."  * 

Such  was  the  man  into  whose  hands  Catinat 
gave  Count  Mattioli  on  the  2nd  of  May,  1679. 
"  He  is  in  the  chamber  which  Dubreuil 
occupied,  where  he  will  be  treated  civilly, 
according  to  the  request  of  the  Abbe 
d'Estrades,  until  the  King's  wishes  with  re- 
gard to  him  are  known."  Already,  however, 
the  prisoner  had  lost  his  identity,  for  he  was 
passed  into  Pignerol,  and  received  there, 
under  the  name  of  Lestang  :  as  Lestang,  and 

*  Topin. 


262         THE  MAN  IN  THE  IRON  MASK 

by  no  other  name,  was  he  known  in  the 
fortress, — save  only  to  Saint-Mars.  "  The 
King's  wishes  with  regard  to  him"  were  very 
soon  made  known.  In  less  than  a  fortnight 
from  the  day  of  Mattioli's  arrest — the  15th 
of  May — Louvois  wrote  Saint-Mars  concern- 
ing him  " .  .  .  .  that  it  is  not  the 
intention  of  the  King  that  the  Sieur  de 
Lestang  should  be  well  treated,  or  that, 
except  the  absolute  necessaries  of  life,  you 
should  give  him  anything  to  soften  his  cap- 
tivity." Thus  "the  most  generous  King" — 
whose  commands  are  renewed  on  the  20th 
of  the  month.  "Your  letter  of  the  10th  of 
this  month " — it  is  Louvois  again  to  Saint- 
Mars — "has  been  delivered  to  me.  I  have 
nothing  to  add  to  what  I  have  already 
commanded  you  respecting  the  severity 
with  which  the  person  named  Lestang  must 
be  treated."  Two  days  later,  May  22nd  : 
"  You    must    keep    Lestang    in    the    rigorous 


THE  DUNGEON  OF  PIGNEROL.         263 

confinement  I  enjoined  in  my  former  letters, 
without  allowing  him  to  see  a  doctor,  unless 
you  know  he  is  in  absolute  want  of  one.'' 
Later,  July  25th,  Saint-Mars  receives  in- 
structions that  his  prisoner  may  have  writing 
materials  ;  scarcely,  however,  for  his  own 
solace.  "  You  may  give  paper  and  ink  to 
the  Sieur  de  Lestang,  with  permission  to 
put  in  writing  whatever  he  wishes  to  say. 
You  will  then  send  it  to  me,  and  I  will  let 
you  know  whether  it  deserves  any  considera- 
tion." 

From  the  picture  that  history  has  left  us 
of  Saint-Mars,  it  is  easily  inferred  that  he 
would  read  aright  the  instruction  to  treat  a 
prisoner  "with  severity":  but  the  proof 
itself  is  not  wanting.  We  have  seen  that 
Mattioli  was  arrested  in  the  beginning  of 
May,  1679.  In  eight  months  from  that 
time  the  rigours  of  his  imprisonment  had  re- 
sulted   in    the  temporary    loss    of  his    reason 


264         THE  MAN  IN  THE  IRON  MASK. 

He  was  neither  the  first  nor  the  last  of  the 
State  prisoners  of  pre-Revolutionary  France 
whom  the  dungeon  reduced  to  madness. 
Consider  that  these  places  were  virtually 
impenetrable  ;  that  there  were  no  inspectors 
of  prisons,  no  visiting  justices  ;  and  that  the 
governor  in  his  dungeon  wielded  a  power 
scarcely  less  tremendous  than  the  King  at 
Versailles.  There  was  no  system  of  ad- 
ministration under  which  the  prisoner  could 
stand  upon  his  rights,  with  privilege  of 
appeal  beyond  the  prison  walls ;  he  had  no 
rights — save  what  were  granted  him  as 
peculiar  favours.  He  depended  in  all  things 
upon  the  governor  :  a  miserly  governor 
might  starve  and  keep  him  cold  and  meanly 
clad  ;  a  cruel  one  had  darker  means  at  his  dis- 
posal, and  used  them — the  torture,  the  whip, 
the  subterranean  cachot  were  always  there. 
In  eight  months  Mattioli  had  grown  mad. 
On   the    6th   of  January,    1680,    Saint-Mars 


THE  DUNGEON  OF  PIGNEROL.         265 

wrote  to  Louvois  : — "  I  am  obliged,  Sir,  to 
inform  you,  that  the  Sieur  de  Lestang  is 
become  like  the  monk  I  have  the  care  of; 
that  is  to  say,  subject  to  fits  of  raving  mad- 
ness ;  from  which  the  Sieur  Dubreuil  also  is 
not  exempt."  The  methods  of  Saint-Mars 
were  rather  fatal  to  sanity  ;  here  were  three 
lunatics  together  at  one  time  in  Pignerol. 
In  the  third  week  of  February:  "The  Sieur 
de  Lestang,  who  has  been  nearly  a  year  in 
my  custody,  complains  that  he  is  not  treated 
as   a  man  of  his  quality,   and  the   minister  of 

a    great   prince,    ought    to    be I 

think  he  is  deranged,  by  the  way  he  talks 
to  me ;  telling  me  he  converses  every  day 
with  God  and  the  angels ;  that  they  have 
told  him  of  the  death  of  the  Duke  of 
Mantua  and  of  the  Duke  of  Lorraine ; 
and,  as  an  additional  proof  of  his  madness, 
he  says  he  has  the  honour  of  being  nearly 
related   to    the   King,   to  whom    he   wishes   to 


266         THE  MAN  IN  THE  IRON  MASK. 

write  in  complaint  of  the  way  I  treat  him. 
I  have  not  thought  proper  to  give  him 
paper  and  ink  for  that  purpose,  perceiving 
him  not  to  be  in  his  right  senses." 

Versailles  was  quite  unmoved  by  these 
recitals.  Louvois,  with  the  King  behind 
him,  was  still  hardening  his  heart.  Even 
the  consolations  of  religion  were  to  be  ad- 
ministered within  the  very  narrowest  limits 
imposed  by  the  Church.  "  It  will  be  suffi- 
cient to  let  the  prisoners  of  the  lower 
tower " — in  which  Mattioli  was  confined — 
"  confess  once  a  year."  In  the  same  de- 
spatch, the  ioth  of  July: — "With  regard  to 
the  Sieur  de  Lestang,  I  wonder  at  your 
patience,  and  that  you  should  wait  for  an 
order  to  treat  such  a  rascal  as  he  deserves, 
when  he  is  wanting  in  respect  to  you." 

Then  the  mad  Mattioli  was  put  with  the 
mad  Jacobin  ;  an  economy  on  the  part  of 
Saint-Mars,  "to  avoid  the  necessity  of  having 


THE  DUNGEON  OF  PIGNEROL.         267 

two  priests."  Mattioli,  imagining  the  monk 
a  spy  upon  him,  "  walked  about  with  long 
strides,  his  cloak  over  his  nose,  crying  out 
that  he  was  not  a  dupe."  The  Jacobin, 
11  who  was  always  seated  on  his  truckle-bed, 
with  his  elbows  on  his  knees,  looked  at  him 
gravely,  without  listening  to  him  "  ;  but  one 
day,  "getting  down  from  his  bed,  stark 
naked,"  he  set  on  preaching,  "  without  rhyme 
or  reason " ;  and  preached  till  he  could 
preach  no  longer.  With  a  naivety  of  con- 
fession most  characteristic,  Saint- Mars  adds  : 
"  I  and  my  lieutenants  saw  all  their 
manoeuvres  through  a  hole  above  the  door." 
This  is  a  sore  history,  not  to  be  too 
long  pursued.  Nearly  all  that  is  known 
of  Mattioli's  life  in  Pignerol  is  concen- 
trated into  this' glimpse  of  the  poor  frenzied 
pair,  mewed  together  in  their  narrow 
Bedlam,  with  "  I  and  my  lieutenants "  watch- 
ing   them     behind     the    door.       Yet     it    was 


268         THE  MAN  IN  THE  IRON  MASK. 

better  to  be  mad  than  sane — in  Pignerol — 
with  Saint-Mars. 

Fifteen  years  Mattioli  lay  here  ;  lived  fif- 
teen years  on  the  vapours  of  Pignerol.  A 
solitary  instance  is  recorded,  pathetic  enough 
in  the  circumstances,  of  his  attempt  to  win 
over  one  of  the  lieutenants  of  Saint-Mars, 
Blainvilliers  by  name,  by  the  offer  of  a  ring. 
In  some  raving  hour  the  prisoner  had 
written  "abusive  sentences  with  charcoal  on 
the  wall,"  and  Blainvilliers  had  threatened 
him  with  beating.  A  day  or  two  later,  as 
the  officer  was  serving  him  with  dinner, 
Mattioli  said :  "  Sir,  here  is  a  little  ring, 
which  I  wish  to  give  you,  and  I  beg  you  to 
accept  of  it."  Saint-Mars,  in  his  inevitable 
report  to  Louvois,  conjectures  it  "well  worth 
fifty  or  sixty  pistoles  "  :  it  was  probably  the 
ring  which  Mattioli  had  received  from 
Louis  XIV. 

Concerning    Pignerol,    the   rest    is    silence. 


THE  DUNGEON  OF  PIGNEROL.  269 

Mountain  and  wood  and  stream  hem  round 
that  altitude  of  grey-black  stone,  where 
Louis's  prisoner  sits  through  fifteen  spectral 
years. 


270 


CHAPTER  VI. 

It    has    been    rightly   said    that    the 
interest  of  Count  Mattioli's  captivity 

Inquisition  *  ■* 

01  juies     owes    everything    to    the    supposition 

Loiseleur.        .  .  •  t  •     '         1  1 

that  we  have  in  him  the  actual 
Man  in  the  Mask.  So  closely  did  the 
jealous  anger  of  the  King  conceal  him, 
that  his  life  in  prison,  mysterious  even  to 
the  creatures  of  Saint-Mars,  has  left  scarcely 
a  trace  in  the  real  history  of  Pignerol, 
of  the  Isles,  or  of  the  Bastille.  Legend, 
indeed,  abounds  ;  but  facts  are  of  the 
scantiest.  Was  this  in  truth  the  Man  in 
the  Iron  Mask  ? 

Who  first  sought  to  identify  him  ?  Let 
us  summarise  briefly  on  this  head  the  ex- 
haustive   perquisitions    of    Topin.       To    begin 


INQUISITION  OF  JUIES  IOISEIEUR.     271 

with,  there  is  the  political  pamphlet  already 
cited,  La  Prudenza  trionfante  di  Casale, 
published  in  Cologne  in  1682.  Here  is  set 
forth  in  detail  the  whole  negotiation,  with 
the  parts  played  by  the  Abbe  d'Estrades 
and  Mattioli,  Giuliani  and  Pinchesne,  Catinat 
and  d'Asfeld,  and  the  Duke  of  Mantua. 
Five  years  later,  in  1687,  a  compilation  issued 
at  Leyde  under  the  title  Histoire  abregee  de 
I'Ettrope  gave  the  translation  in  French  of 
an  Italian  letter  denouncing  the  abduction 
of  Mattioli.  There  is  then  a  long  interval. 
In  1749,  Muratori,  in  his  Annali  a" Italia, 
related  the  history  of  the  intrigue  for  Casale, 
and  the  capture  of  the  Duke  of  Mantua's 
plenipotentiary.  In  1770  appeared  the  letter 
of  Baron  d'Heiss  in  the  Journal  Encyclo- 
pedique,  in  which  he  says  :  "It  appears  that 
this  Secretary  to  the  Duke  of  Mantua  might 
very  well  be  the  Man  in  the  Iron  Mask, 
transferred     from     Pignerol     to    the    Isles    of 


272         THE  MAN  IN  THE  IRON  MASK. 

Sainte-Marguerite,  and  thence  to  the  Bastille 
in  1690,*  when  M.  de  Saint-Mars  became 
governor  of  that  place."  In  1786,  the  Italian 
Fantuzzi,  in  his  Notizie  degli  scrittori 
Bolognesi,  summed  up  what  had  hitherto 
been  written  on  the  subject.  The  same 
opinion,  that  Mattioli  was  the  Man  in  the 
Mask,  was  sustained  in  the  year  of  the 
Revolution  by  the  i(  Chevalier  de  B.",  in  a 
volume  entitled  Londres.  —  Correspondance 
interceptee.  In  November,  1795,  M.  de 
Chambrier,  who  had  been  Prussian  minister 
at  the  Court  of  Turin,  essayed  to  prove  in 
a  lecture  delivered  to  the  Belles-Lettres 
class  at  the  Academy  of  Berlin,  that  Count 
Mattioli  and  the  Man  in  the  Iron  Mask 
were  one  and  the  same  individual,  f  Just 
one  hundred  years  ago  appeared  the  pamphlet 

*  It  was  in  1698  that  Mattioli  came  to  the  Bastille. 

t  Mentioning  the  subject  one  day  to  a  very  intelligent  German  lady 
of  my  acquaintance,  she  replied :  "Mattioli?  Yes,  of  course.  We 
were  taught  that  at  school." 


INQUISITION  OF  JULES  LOISELEUR.     273 

of  Roux-Fazillac,  who  was  the  first  to  publish 
documents  in  support  of  his  case.  Much 
more  complete,  however,  were  the  documents 
of  Delort,  whose  small,  well-reasoned  treatise, 
Histoire  de  P  Homme  au  Masque  de  Fery  was 
published  in  Paris  in  1825.  By  permission 
of  Comte  d'Hauterive,  Keeper  of  the  Archives 
of  the  Office  of  Secretary  of  State  for  the 
Foreign  Department,  Delort  examined  and 
made  excellent  use  of  all  the  despatches 
known  at  that  day.  The  history  that  he 
drew  from  them  seemed  conclusive.  It  is, 
in  effect,  the  true  history  ;  but,  as  will  be 
seen,  it  is  the  true  history  with  a  very 
important  error.  Ellis's  work,  which  appeared 
a  year  or  two  later  (the  second  edition,  whith 
is  before  me,  is  dated  1827)  was  little  more 
than  an  adaptation  of  Delort's.  Camille 
Rousset,  in  his  Histoire  de  Louvois,  rehearses 
once   more  the  story  of  the   negotiations,  and 

says  :    "  We   share  the  opinion    of  those  who 

18 


274         THE  MAN  IN  THE  IRON  MASK. 

hold  that  the  Masque  de  Fer  was  none  other 
than  Mattioli."  Depping,  in  his  Correspondance 
administrative  sous  Louis  XIV.,  is  of  the 
same  mind. 

Except,  however  by  Roux-Fazillac  and 
Delort,  there  was  little  attempt  to  prove  that 
the  person  arrested  and  carried  to  Pignerol 
on  the  2nd  of  May,  1679,  was  identical  with 
the  prisoner  who  died  in  the  Bastille  on  the 
19th  of  November,  1703.  And  that,  of  course, 
constitutes  the  knot  of  the  problem.  "  That 
Mattioli  was  seized  in  1679  by  a  French 
agent,  and  forcibly  carried  to  Pignerol — 
this,  as  we  have  seen,  was  a  fact  which  had 
long  been  known.  But  that  intrigue  is  no 
longer  our  sole  concern  :  a  mere  preliminary 
of  the  question  which  engages  us.  What 
is  essential  is,  to  follow  the  minister  of  the 
Duke  of  Mantua  from  prison  to  prison,  and 
to  see  not  only  whether  he  might  have  been, 
but   whether   it   is    impossible  that   he  should 


INQUISITION  OF  JULES  LOISELEUR.     275 

not  have  been,  that  mysterious  prisoner 
brought  by  Saint-Mars  in  1698  from  the 
Isles  of  Sainte-Marguerite  to  the  Bastille, 
where  he  died  in  1703.  Delort  believed 
that  he  had  proved  it.  His  conviction  was 
profound,  and  to  many  his  demonstration 
seemed  irrefutable."*  But  the  documents 
discovered  by  Delort  did  not  contain  the 
whole  history  ;  the  omissions,  in  fact,  were 
serious,  and  we  are  now  to  see  how  a  keen 
examiner,  detecting  them,  with  one  stroke 
of  his  pen  shattered  the  system — and  left 
the  riddle  of  the  Mask  apparently  insoluble 
to   the   end   of  time. 

Mattioli  was  incarcerated  in  Pignerol  on 
the  2nd  of  May,  1679.  At  this  date  the 
dungeon  held,  besides  Fouquet  and  Lauzun, 
four  other  prisoners  concerning  whom  it  is 
necessary  to  note  that  they  were  quite  obscure 
and    unimportant    persons.         One    of    them, 

*  Topin. 

18* 


276         THE  MAN  IN  THE  IRON  MASK. 

Eustache  Dauger,  brought  to  Pignerol  in 
July,  1669,  had  served  Fouquet  in  the  capacity 
of  valet.  Another,  the  Jacobin  monk  whom 
we  have  seen  sharing  his  cell  with  Mattioli, 
and  who  had  been  imprisoned  in  April,  1674, 
is  branded  by  Louvois  as  "  a  finished  rogue, 
whom  you  cannot  treat  badly  enough."  He 
was  to  have  "  no  fire  in  his  chamber,  unless 
he  is  ill  or  the  severity  of  the  cold  compels 
it,  and  no  other  nourishment  than  bread 
with  wine-and- water."  The  two  remaining 
prisoners  were  a  certain  La  Riviere  and  the 
Dubreuil  whose  name  has  been  mentioned. 
So  insignificant  were  these,  that  when  Saint- 
Mars  was  called  from  the  government  of 
Pignerol  to  that  of  Exiles,  Louvois  asked 
ot  him  a  memoir  furnishing  their  names  and 
the  reasons  why  they  had  been  imprisoned. 
It  is  clearly  not  among  prisoners  of  such  small 
consideration,  prisoners  of  whom  the  Minister 
knows    neither    the    names    nor    the   causes   of 


INQUISITION  OF  JULES  L01SELEUR.      277 

their  detention,  that  we  shall  find  the  Man 
in  the  Mask.  Fouquet  died  at  Pignerol  in 
March,  1680.  Lauzun  was  released  the  22nd 
of  April,  1 68 1. 

On  the  1 2th  of  May,  1681,  Louvois 
announced  to  Saint-Mars  that  the  King  had 
appointed  him  to  the  command  of  the  fortress 
of  Exiles.  On  the  9th  of  June  the  Minister 
wrote  again,  instructing  Saint-Mars  as  to  the 
precautions  to  be  observed  respecting  the 
journey  from  Pignerol  of  those  of  his  prisoners 
who  were  to  be  removed. 

"  His  Majesty's  desire  is,  that  as  soon  as 
the  room  at  Exiles,  which  you  shall  judge 
the  most  proper  for  the  safe  keeping  of  the 
two  prisoners  in  the  lower  tower,  shall  be 
ready  to  receive  them,  you  send  these  prisoners 
out  of  the  citadel  of  Pignerol  in  a  litter,  and 
conduct  them  there  under  the  escort  of  your 
troop  .  .  .  Immediately  after  the  pri- 
soners'   departure,    it    is    his    Majesty's    wish 


278         THE  MAN  IN  THE  IRON  MASK. 

that  you  proceed  to  Exiles,  to  take  posses- 
sion of  the  government,  and  to  settle  yourself 
there." 

Here  were  two  prisoners  to  be  removed. 
A  word  follows  concerning  "  the  rest  of  the 
prisoners  now  in  your  charge,"  which  it  will 
be  important  to  remember  at  the  final  stage 
of  the  enquiry.  "  The  Sieur  de  Chamoy," 
says  Louvois,  "  has  instructions  to  pay  two 
crowns  a  day  for  the  maintenance  of  these 
three  prisoners."  There  were  thus  five 
prisoners  in  Pignerol  on  the  eve  of  the 
departure  of  Saint- Mars  for  Exiles. 

The  prisoners  to  be  removed  were  the  two 
prisoners  of  the  lower  tower.  The  lower 
tower  was,  as  we  have  seen,  the  prison  of 
Mattioli  and  the  Jacobin  monk :  what  more 
natural,  then,  than  to  conclude  that  these 
were  the  two  whom  Saint-Mars  carried  with 
him  to  Exiles  ?  This  was  the  obvious  view 
adopted    by     Roux-Fazillac,     Delort,    and    all 


INQUISITION  OF  JULES  LOISELEUR.     281 

investigators  up  to  the  time  of  Topin.  Was 
it  the  true  one  ? 

In  the  course  of  years  the  climate  of  Exiles 
affected  the  health  of  Saint-Mars ;  and  the 
ever-obliging  Louvois  procured  him  a  change 
of  government.  Early  in  1687  he  was  called 
to  the  Isles  of  Sainte- Marguerite- Saint- 
Honorat,  in  the  Sea  of  Provence.  To  the 
fortress  of  Sainte-Marguerite  he  took  one 
prisoner  only.  The  date  was  the  30th  of 
April,  1687.  Delort  and  the  rest,  determined 
not  to  lose  sight  of  their  candidate  for  a 
moment,  declared  that  this  "  seul  prisonnier  " 
must  be  Mattioli.  No  name  was  mentioned, 
and  definite  proof  was  lacking  ;  but  probability 
favoured  the  conjecture. 

Let  us  see  how  it  is  established  that  one 
alone  of  the  two  prisoners  brought  from 
Pignerol  to  Exiles  was  carried  from  Exiles 
to  the  Isles.  A  few  days  before  the  close 
of    1685    (December    the    23rd),    Saint-Mars 


282         THE  MAN  IN  THE  IRON  MASK. 

wrote  to  Louvois  :  "  My  prisoners  are  still 
ill,  and  under  medical  treatment.  They  are, 
however,  perfectly  tranquil."  In  the  autumn 
of  the  following  year,  one  of  the  prisoners 
was  dropsical.  "You  ought  to  have  told 
me,"  writes  Louvois,  October  9th,  1686, 
"which  of  your  prisoners  has  become 
dropsical."  He  writes  again  on  the  3rd  of 
November :  "  It  will  be  proper  to  let  your 
dropsical  prisoner  be  confessed,  when  you 
are  certain  that  his  end  is  near."  In  the 
first  days  of  January,  1687,  the  prisoner 
died.  "  I  have  received  your  letter  of  the  5th 
inst.,"  writes  Louvois  (January  13th,  1687), 
"which  informs  me  of  the  death  of  one  of 
your  prisoners.  I  will  say  no  more  concern- 
ing your  desire  for  a  change  of  govern- 
ment, since  you  have  already  learned  that 
the  King  has  been  pleased  to  confer  on  you 
a  better  post  than  the  one  you  are  in  posses- 
sion of."     The  death   of  one  of  the  prisoners 


INQUISITION  OF  JULES  LOISELEUR.      283 

brought  by  Saint-Mars  from  Pignerol  to 
Exiles  is  thus  demonstrated.  Was  it  Mattioli 
or  the  other  ?  Delort  and  his  contemporaries 
concluded,  positively  for  the  most  part,  that 
it  was  the  other. 

They  overlooked,  however,  one  fact  of  the 
extremest  significance.  It  was,  that  from  the 
date  of  this  death  at  Exiles  Mattioli  s  name 
disappears  entirely  from  the  correspondence  of 
Louvois  and  Saint- Mars.  Now  there  may 
be  nothing  absolutely  conclusive  in  this  ;  but, 
taken  with  the  testimony  of  the  death,  it 
seems  to  plunge  into  hopeless  uncertainty 
every  system  which  has  sought  to  solve 
through  Mattioli  the  mystery  of  the  Man  in 
the  Mask.  Such  was  the  terribly  destructive 
criticism  of  Jules  Loiseleur,  in  the  Revue 
Contemporaine*  a  criticism  which  demolishes 
those  systems  in  a  fashion  the  most  decisive. 
If    Mattioli    and    the     monk    were    the    two 

*  July  2 1  st,   1867. 


284         THE  MAN  IN  THE  IRON  MASK. 

prisoners  whom  Saint-Mars  carried  to  Exiles 
(and  we  have  seen  that  their  removal  was 
ordered  by  Louvois)  ;  if  one  of  the  pair  died 
of  dropsy  at  Exiles  in  January,  1687  (and 
the  document  in  proof  has  been  cited) ;  and 
if  from  this  date  Mattioli's  name  vanishes 
from  the  letters  of  Louvois  and  Saint-Mars 
— with  what  confidence  may  it  be  pretended 
that  Mattioli  was  the  masked  man  borne  in 
secret  by  Saint-Mars  to  the  Bastille  in 
September,  1698  ?  "  His  demonstration,'' 
wrote  a  contemporary  critic  of  Loiseleur,  "  at 
once  luminous  and  peremptory,  has  ex- 
hausted the  question  ;  and,  in  default  of  fresh 
documents,  no  serious  mind  will  ever  return 
to  it."  Topin  confesses  that  after  reading 
and  re-reading  this  demonstration,*  he  could 
resolve  no  otherwise  than  that  the  secret  of 
the  Mask  was  and  would  remain  impenetrable. 

*  Refuted,  nevertheless,  by  him  in  so  far  as  concerned  Loiseleur's 
hypothesis  of  the  arrest  of  the  spy  by  Catinat. 


*85 


CHAPTER    VII. 

Comes     the      question      then  :      has 

The  Missing      .  _  -  .  . 

the     Man    in    the    Mask    once    more 

Link 

Revealed  by  and  finally  eluded  us  ?  Let  us  go 
a  step  further.  Baudry  had  said 
of  the  inquisition  of  Loiseleur,  that  it  had 
exhausted  the  problem ;  that,  if  other  docu- 
ments were  not  forthcoming,  no  serious 
mind  would  return  to  its  consideration. 
But  it  has  been  stated  before,  and  the 
statement  must  be  repeated,  that  the  whole 
truth  of  this  strange  drama  was  not  con- 
tained in  any  single  set  of  documents. 
Louis  XIV.  was  little  likely  to  leave  us  the 
epitome  of  it  ;  and  no  minister  who  had 
part    in    the    affair    ever    forgot    the    King's 


286         THE  MAN  IN  THE  IRON  MASK. 

command  to  d'Estrades  :  //  faudra  que 
personne  ne  sfacke  ce  que  cet  homme  sera 
devenu, — No  one  must  know  what  becomes 
of  this  man.  His  very  name  had  already 
disappeared,  save  only  for  those  few  who 
had  known  it  from  the  first.  At  Pignerol, 
he  was  Lestang ;  in  the  Bastille,  he  was 
the  prisoner  from  Provence.  Apart  from 
the  brief  but  pregnant  documents  of  the 
Bastille,  to  be  presented  when  their  time 
comes,  his  identity  was  only  to  be  made 
good  by  the  comparison  of  innumerable 
despatches,  "  not  one  among  which  furnishes 
by  itself  an  irrefutable  proof,  but  which  in 
their  entirety,  with  the  logical  deductions 
that  may  be  drawn  from  them,  conduct  to 
an  absolute  certainty."  * 

But  there  could  be  no  doubt  that,  after 
Loiseleur,  fresh  documents  were  necessary, 
if    this    certainty    were    ever   to    be    attained. 

*  Topin. 


A  Corner  of  the  Fort  of  Exiles. 


THE  MISSING  LINK  REVEALED.       289 

These  documents  were  found  by  Topin. 
The  passage  in  which  he  explains  how 
he  first  imagined  their  existence,  and  then 
went  on  to  prove  it,  is  peculiarly  interest- 
ing, as  showing  both  his  extreme  mental 
ingenuity  and  the  inexhaustible  patience 
with  which  he  pursued  a  task  now  regarded 
as  well  -  nigh  impossible  of  completion. 
There  comes  first  a  letter,  of  which,  at 
sight,  the  significance  is  less  than  nothing : 
a  letter  from  Louvois  to  Saint- Mars,  dated 
January  5th,  1682.  At  this  time  Saint- 
Mars  has  been  but  a  few  months  at 
Exiles ;  but  he  is  already  clamouring  for  a 
change  of  government,  and  has  evidently 
been  sounding  Louvois  on  the  subject. 
Louvois  replies  : 

"  I  received  your  letter  of  the  28th  ult. 
You  do  not  know  where  your  interest  lies, 
when  you  propose  to  exchange  the  govern- 
ment   of   Exiles    against   that    of    Casale,    the 

'9 


290         THE  MAN  IN  THE  IRON  MASK. 

value  of  which  is  only  two  thousand  livres 
a  year.*  I  strongly  advise  you  not  to  think 
further  of  it." 

There  is  no  more  in  the  despatch  than 
that.  It  suggests  nothing  but  the  interest 
of  Louvois  in  the  personal  fortunes  of 
Saint-Mars,  whose  sister-in  law  was  the 
minister's  mistress.  Saint-Mars,  incessantly 
grasping  (and  suffering  in  health  at  Exiles), 
seeks  another  change  of  place  :  Louvois 
responds  that  the  change  he  proposes  will 
put  nothing  into  his  purse.  It  is  the  letter, 
not  of  the  minister  to  the  gaoler,  but  of  the 
minister  to  his  friend :  it  is  a  strictly  per- 
sonal communication.  What,  then,  is  its 
value  as  a  counterpoise  to  the  criticism  of 
Loiseleur,  which  showed — upon  the  docu- 
ments put  in — that  Mattioli,  if  he  did 
not  die  of  dropsy  at  Exiles,  did  at  all 
events    disappear   incontinently   from  the  des- 

*  The  amount  which  Saint- Mars  was  receiving  at  Exiles. 


THE  MISSING  LINK  REVEALED.       291 

patches    which,    up    to    this    point,    had    been 

almost  solely  occupied  with  him  ? 

The     supposition    is     still,    of    course,    that 

Mattioli  was  one  of   the  two  prisoners  whom 

Saint-Mars    carried    with    him    from    Pignerol 

to   Exiles.      Just   here,    however,     the     doubt 

comes  in    that    suggested   itself  to   Topin.      If 

Mattioli    were     with     Saint-Mars    at     Exiles, 

what     more    imprudent    than    that    he    should 

propose     to     take     him — an     Italian     subject 

forcibly    stolen     from     Italy — into     an     Italian 

town,  and   a   town   Mantuan   in    its  hereditary 

interests !     If    it    were    in    any    way    possible 

that      Mattioli     should     discover     himself    to 

friends,     he    would    at    least     have    a     better 

chance  of  doing  so  in  Casale   than  at  Exiles. 

How     did     this     not    occur     to     Saint-Mars  ? 

And,    if    it    missed    the    sleepless    intelligence 

of  Saint-Mars,  how  came  it  also  to  be  passed 

by   Louvois  ?     But  Louvois  evidently  has  not 

a  thought    of    danger.      His    sole    motive    in 

19* 


292         THE  MAN  IN  THE  IRON  MASK. 

dissuading  Saint-Mars  from  Casale  is  that 
his  pocket  would  profit  nothing  by  the  ex- 
change. Mattioli,  whom  it  would  have  been 
unwise  to  carry  back  into  Italy,  is  not  so 
much  as  mentioned.  Then  Mattioli,  perhaps, 
was  not  at  Exiles  at  all,  and  had  never 
been  sent  there  ?  This  was  the  inspiration 
that  Topin  drew  from  the  colourless  despatch 
of  Louvois. 

The  chance  of  success  in  this  direction 
was  a  very  feeble  one ;  for  the  despatch  of 
Louvois  was  extant,  ordering  the  removal  of 
the  two  prisoners  of  the  tour  d' en  das,  the 
lower  tower,  to  which  Mattioli  and  the  monk 
had  been  relegated  ;  and  the  despatch  had 
closed  with  the  injunction  that  "  the  effects 
belonging  to  the  Sieur  de  Mattioli  which 
are  in  your  possession  are  to  be  taken  to 
Exiles,  so  that  they  may  be  given  back  to 
him,  should  his  Majesty  ever  decide  to  set 
the  prisoner  at  liberty."    This  was  categorical. 


THE  MISSING   LINK  REVEALED.       293 

Still,  Topin's  doubts  persisted.  If  Mattioli 
were  indeed  at  Exiles,  how  could  Saint-Mars 
propose  to  transfer  him  to  Casale  ?  And 
how  did  Louvois  let  that  proposal  pass  un- 
rebuked  ?  With  these  questions  pricking  him, 
Topin  returned  to  the  Bibliotheque  Imperiale 
to  begin  the  search  anew — and  the  missing 
link  revealed  itself. 

It  was  found  in  a  letter  from  Saint-Mars 
to  d'Estrades,  bearing  date  June  25th,  1681. 
Saint- Mars,  the  least  gregarious  of  men,  had 
sworn  an  ardent  friendship  with  the  Abbe, 
and  he  hastens  to  share  with  him  the  news 
of  his  appointment  to  Exiles.  "  Count  on 
me  as  your  most  devoted.  I  received  yesterday 
the  warrant  appointing  me  to  the  governor- 
ship of  Exiles,  at  a  salary  of  two  thousand 
livres.     .     .     .      I  am    to  take    with    me    two 

jail-birds  *    whom     I     have     here 

Mattioli  remains  where  he   is,  with  two   other 

*  "  Deux  merles." 


294         THE  MAN  IN  THE  IRON  MASK. 

prisoners.  One  of  my  lieutenants,  named 
Villebois,  will  have  charge  of  them." 

Mattioli,  therefore,  was  not  the  prisoner 
who  died  at  Exiles  in  January,  1687.  He 
never  went  to  Exiles  at  all.  The  purpose 
indicated  in  Louvois's  despatch,  of  the  9th 
of  June,  1 68 1,  had  been  abandoned;  and 
Mattioli  remained  at  Pignerol,  where  he  will 
be  found  in  the  keeping  of  Villebois.  The 
long  silence  of  Louvois  and  Saint-Mars 
concerning  him  thus  receives  its  natural 
explanation. 

The  perplexity,  the  scepticism  which  Loise- 
leur's  examination  had  produced,  vanished 
upon  this  discovery.  Mattioli  was  at  Pignerol 
and  at  the  Isles  and  in  the  Bastille  ;  Delort's 
error,  which  for  a  time  cast  into  uncertainty 
the  whole  history  of  the  Mask,  lay  in  re- 
moving him  from  Pignerol  to  Exiles.  There 
are  two  traits  or  characters  in  the  history 
of    the     Mask    which    attach    themselves    to 


THE  MISSING  LINK  REVEALED.       295 

Mattioli  alone,  of  all  the  prisoners  whom 
Saint-Mars  had  in  his  keeping  :  the  unvarying 
tradition  of  his  detention  at  Sainte-Marguerite, 
and  the  documental  certainty  of  his  detention 
at  Pignerol.  In  Du  Junca's  journal,  the 
prisoner  whom  Saint-Mars  brings  to  the 
Bastille  in  September,  1698,  is  an  ancient 
prisoner  whom  he  had  at  Pignerol.  Exiles 
finds  no  place  in  the  entry.  We  know  that 
Saint-Mars  had  Mattioli  in  his  charge  during 
two  years  at  Pignerol,  and  Topin  has  shown 
that  the  prisoner  was  not  transferred  to 
Exiles.  But  for  that  unfortunate  error,  which 
is  principally  identified  with  Delort,  the  pro- 
blem might  long  since  have  been  resolved. 


296 


CHAPTER    VI     I. 

Most   visitors    to    the    Riviera   have 

The 

prisoner  of  made  the  little  trip  to  the  Isles 
consequence.  of  Sainte  -  Marguerite  and  Saint- 
Honorat,  enticed  by  the  piquant  legend  of 
the  Man  in  the  Iron  Mask.  A  good  woman 
discovers  you  his  cell,  charms  you  and  thrills 
you  with  stories  of  his  fine  apparel,  his 
plate,  and  the  deference  shown  him  by  Saint- 
Mars  :  poor  Mask,  who  had  no  fine  clothes 
and  no  plate,  and  whom  the  deferential 
gaoler  had  threatened  with  a  cudgel !  The 
Isles  owe  most  of  their  celebrity  to  what  is 
purely  fabulous  in  this  history,  but  they  have 
other  annals  also. 

Lying  some  fifteen  hundred  yards  from  the 
shore,     the     two     islands,     of    which     Sainte- 


PRISONER    OF  CONSEQUENCE.  297 

Marguerite  is  the  larger,  are  as  sentinels  over 
the  pleasure-haunts  of  Nice,  Cannes,  and  San 
Remo.  Rock  and  reef  lend  some  amount  of 
danger  to  the  approach.  Within,  the  Isles 
are  dark  with  pine  trees,  cumbered  and 
strengthened  with  shaggy  hills,  gigantic 
boulders.  Climbing  Sainte-Marguerite's  top, 
the  traveller's  eyes  are  filled  with  a  marvellous 
golden  light ;  before  him  undulates  on  either 
hand  all  that  sun-bathed  shore  of  the  Riviera ; 
he  counts  the  glistening  villas  of  Cannes ; 
grey-green  hills  of  olive  rise  beyond  ;  to  the 
left  streams  out  the  long  chain  of  the  Esterel, 
"  with  contours  brusque  and  varied  "  ;  and  on 


the    right    the    Maritime    Alps    cast    up    their 
"thousand  years  of  snow." 

The  Romans  were  here  once  ;  hermits  have 
dwelt  in  these  island  solitudes;  the  Saracens 
have  invaded  and  the  Spaniards  have  sacked 
them.  *      In    the    dawn    of    the    fifth    century 

*  Topin. 


298         THE  MAN  IN  THE  IRON  MASK. 

Saint- Honorat  founded  here  a  monastery, 
greatly  celebrated  of  the  Gauls,  where  "thou- 
sands of  apostles "  practised  virtue  and  the 
monkish  arts.  On  the  smaller  island  is 
still  shown  the  well  which  the  saint  created, 
yielding  a  miraculous  sweet  water.  Here 
came  Francis  I.,  prisoner  of  the  Spaniards 
after  the  disastrous  field  of  Pavia,  to  endure  a 
harsh  captivity.  Here,,  to  Sainte- Marguerite, 
was  sent,  in  December,  1873,  .  Marshal 
Bazaine,  who  broke  prison  and  escaped  the 
night  of  the  9th  of  August,  1874.  The  two 
islands  bear  the  common  name  of  the  lies  de 
Lerins.  The  memory  of  the  Iron  Mask, 
whose  prison  was  the  fortress  of  Sainte- 
Marguerite,  has  conferred  on  the  Lerins  a 
celebrity  which  seems  likely  to  endure. 

Hither,  then,  came,  in  1687,  the  most  incor- 
ruptible gaoler,  Saint-Mars.  He  had  received 
word  of  his  new  appointment  on  the  20th  of 
January ;    he   was  in   ill-health,   and    eager  for 


PRISONER    OF  CONSEQUENCE.  299 

the  healing  South.  He  wrote  to  Louvois : — 
"  I  am  most  grateful  for  the  new  favour  which 
his  Majesty  has  just  bestowed  on  me  (the 
Government  of  the  Isles  of  Sainte-Mar- 
guerite).  If  you  order  me  to  proceed  there 
without  delay,  I  would  request  to  be  allowed 
to  take  the  road  through  Piedmont,  on  account 
of  the  great  quantity  of  snow  that  lies  between 
this  place  and  Embrun."  He  went  to  Sainte- 
Marguerite  in  February,  and  was  twenty-six 
days  in  bed,   "  with  a  continual  fever." 

Mattioli,  this  while,  supposed  at  Exiles,  lay 
close  in  Pignerol.  We  have  glimpses  of  the 
guard  that  was  kept  upon  him.  Villebois, 
chained  to  his  prisoner,  seems  never  to  have 
been  allowed  to  leave  the  dungeon.  In  such 
a  nervous  fit  as  Saint-Mars  was  almost  inces- 
santly a  prey  to,  he  wrote  to  Louvois,  asking 
to  whom  he  should  entrust  the  prisoner, 
supposing  he  were  incapacitated  by  sickness  ; 
and  Louvois  replied  :  "  To  the  person  you  can 


300         THE  MAN  IN  THE  IRON  MASK. 

most  rely  on."  Even  the  priest  of  the  prison 
was  distrusted — "  Your  prisoners  are  to  be 
confessed  only  once  a  year."  Books  of 
devotion  might  be  given  to  them  ;  but  "  you 
are  to  take  care  they  do  not  use  them  for 
passing  notes  to  one  another."  One  night 
someone  is  .  suspected  of  haunting  a  bastion 
gate  of  Pignerol,  and  Villebois  is  instructed  to 
"  do  your  utmost  to  discover  who  the  person 
was."  There  is  a  rare  effort  of  Mattioli — the 
only  one  that  records  prove — to  disclose  his 
situation :  he  writes  something  on  a  lining 
torn  from  his  pocket.  It  is  discovered,  and 
communicated  to  Versailles,  and  the  answer  is 
returned- — "You  must  burn  any  scraps  on 
which  Mattioli  has  written."  The  walls  of 
Pignerol,  and  the  road  beneath,  were  strictly 
watched  ;  the  sentinels  had  orders  to  let  no 
one  linger  about  the  gates. 

Saint-Mars,    on    his    part,    while   at    Exiles, 
had    enjoyed    a   measure    of    liberty    that    he 


-3 

■ 
Si 

6 


PRISONER    OF  CONSEQUENCE.  303 

had  never  known  when  guarding  Mattioli 
at  Pignerol.  He  went  on  little  visits  to 
d'Estrades,  to  Catinat ;  he  paid  his  court 
to  the  Duke  of  Savoy ;  he  was  allowed 
from  time  to  time  to  sleep  out  of  the  gaol. 
"  Madame  de  Saint- Mars  having  told  me," 
writes  Louvois,  in  March,  1685,  "that  you 
wish  to  go  to  the  baths  of  Aix-en-Savoie, 
I  spoke  about  it  to  the  King,  and  his 
Majesty  commands  me  to  say  that  you  may 
absent  yourself  from  Exiles  for  that  purpose 
for  a  period  of  from  fifteen  days  to  three 
weeks."  Even  at  the  Isles,  at  first,  Saint- 
Mars  was  comparatively  at  his  ease.  u  The 
King  consents  to  your  taking  a  holiday  two 
days  in  the  month,  and  permits  you  to  return 
the  visit  of  the  governor  of  Nice."  These 
were  the  relaxations  of  the  period  when  Saint- 
Mars  had  charge  only  of  "two  jail-birds." 

On   a  sudden,  the  26th  of  February,    1694, 
there    is    a    mandate    from  Versailles,    inform- 


304         THE  MAN  IN  THE  IRON  MASK. 

ing  the  commandant  that  three  prisoners 
of  State  are  to  be  sent  from  Pignerol  to 
the  Isles.  The  minister*  enquires  "if  there 
are  safe  places  to  hold  them,"  and  bids 
the  governor  make  all  needful  dispositions 
to  receive  them.  A  second  letter,  March 
the  20th,  contains  a  passage  of  capital 
significance:  "You  know  in  effect  that  they 
are  of  greater  consequence,  at  least  one, 
than  the  prisoners  now  at  the  Isles ;  and, 
preferably  to  those  others,  you  should  see 
that  they  are  lodged  in  the  most  secure 
quarter  of  the  prison.  The  courier  who 
bears  this  despatch  takes  with  him  also 
fifteen  hundred  livres  for  preliminary  ex- 
penses." 

Thus  was  announced  the  coming  of 
Mattioli,  with  the  two  remaining  prisoners 
of   Pignerol. 

*  This    was    Barbezieux,    the    successor    of     Louvois,    who    died 
in    1691. 


PRISONER    OF  CONSEQUENCE.         305 

The  great  Louis,  who  took  his  vengeances 
cruelly,  was  falling  on  his  evil  days.  The 
disruption  was  beginning  which  should  end  in 
the  cataract  of  the  Revolution.  In  Italy 
the  situation  had  been  sadly  modified  since 
the  epoch  at  which  Louis  had  first  sought 
to  treat  as  autocrat  for  the  purchase  of 
Casale.  He  no  longer  spoke  there  with  a 
master's  voice  ;  "  his  arms  had  ceased  to 
be  ever-victorious,  and  he  was  already 
expiating  his  impolitic  and  inopportune 
intervention  in  the  affairs  of  the  Peninsula  " 
Casale  must  be  abandoned  ;  Pignerol,  too — 
that  "  precious  acquisition  of  Richelieu," 
which  had  been  practically  a  French  town 
for   sixty  years. 

Mattioli  in  the  heart  of  his  dungeon  felt 
the  effects  of  the  King's  reverses.  The 
restoration  of  Pignerol  by  Louis  explains 
his  removal  to  the  Isles.  Once  more,  how- 
ever,   a    deep    secrecy  falls   upon    him  ;    he  is 

20 


306        THE  MAN  IN  THE  IRON  MASK. 

never  at  this  time  alluded  to  by  name  in 
the  despatches.  "  Now  more  than  ever, 
in  a  word,  was  it  imperative  to  hide 
from  the  sight  and  knowledge  of  all,  this 
victim  of  an  audacious  and  inexcusable 
violation  of  the  rights  of  men.  Europe's 
discontent  with  Louis  XIV.  was  extreme  ; 
his  interest  lay  in  appeasing  this  discontent ; 
and  in  these  circumstances  it  was  of  the  last 
importance  to  cover  with  an  impenetrable 
mystery  an  existence  which  recalled  at  once 
the  dangerous  ambition,  the  audacity,  and — 
not  less  than  these — the  humbling  of  a  great 
king." 

Never,  accordingly,  were  such  extra- 
ordinary precautions  taken  for  a  journey  of 
this  nature.  The  Marquis  d'Herleville, 
governing  the  citadel  of  Pignerol,  and  the 
Comte  de  Tesse,  commanding  the  French 
troops  in  that  place,  had  orders  "  to  furnish 
the    escort,    and     the    monies    necessary    for 


PRISONER    OF  CONSEQUENCE.  307 

the  expenses  of  the  road "  ;  and  it  was 
strictly  enjoined  upon  de  Tesse  "  that  he 
should  not  seek  to  know  the  names  of  the 
prisoners."  A  strong  escort  was  provided ; 
two  sure  guides  were  sent  in  advance  ;  and 
the  governor  of  the  dungeon  of  Pignerol 
went  with  the  litter  of  the  prisoners,  with 
instructions  to  let  no  one  but  himself 
attend  on  them.  Thus  they  came  mys- 
teriously  to  the  Isles.  / 

In  that  litter  so  closely  escorted,  three 
prisoners  fared,  one  of  whom  was  of  greater 
consequence  than  the  others.  Now,  after  the 
death  of  Fouquet  and  the  release  of  Lauzun, 
there  was  not  at  Pignerol  any  considerable 
prisoner  save  Mattioli.  Note,  too,  that  when 
Saint-Mars  went  to  Exiles,  it  was  to 
Villebois  that  the  charge  of  Mattioli  was 
assigned — Villebois,  who  had  shared  with 
Catinat   the  mission  of  arresting  him  :  further. 

that  on  the  death  of  Villebois,  it  was  another 

20* 


3o8         THE  MAN  IN  THE  IRON  MASK. 

of  Saint- Mars's  lieutenants,  Laprade,  who 
was  sent  from  the  Isles  as  governor  of 
the  dungeon  of  Pignerol.  Saint-Mars  had 
therefore  not  lost  sight  of  his  ancient 
prisoner  ;  he  had  been  in  touch  with  him 
throughout.  At  Exiles,  and  during  the 
first  period  of  his  command  at  the  Isles, 
Saint-Mars,  with  the  King's  permission, 
had  quitted  his  charge  when  it  pleased  him  : 
there  comes  from  Pignerol  this  prisoner  of 
consequence,  and  Saint-Mars  leaves  the 
Isles  no  more.  "  From  this  moment,"  says 
Topin,  "  Saint-Mars  never  stirs  from  his 
prison."  At  this  time,  too,  Barbezieux,  who 
has  not  until  now  displayed  the  least 
anxiety,  is  solicitous  of  knowing  what  would 
befall  at  the  Isles  should  sickness  overtake 
Saint-Mars.  New  measures  of  precaution 
are  proposed  by  Saint- Mars,  and  approved 
by  the  minister.  The  bolts  from  the 
dungeon     of    Pignerol    are     sent    to    Sainte- 


PRISONER    OF  CONSEQUENCE.  309 

Marguerite.  Time  does  not  weaken  this 
scrupulous  watch,  as  appears  by  the  follow- 
ing significant  despatch  from  Versailles, 
November  17th,   1697: — 

"  I  have  received  with  your  letter  of  the 
10th  of  this  month  the  copy  of  the  one 
written  you  by  Mons.  de  Ponchartrain  con- 
cerning the  prisoners  who  are  at  the  Isles  of 
Sainte-Marguerite,  in  accordance  with  the 
King's  orders,  signed  by  him  or  by  the  late 
Mons.  de  Seignelay.  You  have  simply  to 
address  yourself  to  the  safe  keeping  of  all 
the  persons  entrusted  to  you,  and  to  see 
that  no  one  ever  learns  what  your  ancient 
prisoner  has  done." 

Can  the  words  "  your  ancient  prisoner " 
bear  any  meaning  save  one  :  a  prisoner  who 
was  formerly  in  your  keeping  and  who  has 
again  been  confided  to  you  ?  The  phrase 
could  not  possibly  apply  to  the  prisoner 
whom   Saint-Mars  had    brought    to  the    Isles, 


310         THE  MAN  IN   THE  IRON  MASK. 

for  he  arrived  there  in  1687,  and  it  was 
scarcely  to  be  supposed  that  at  the  end  of 
ten  years  the  inhabitants  of  Sainte-Marguerite 
had  grown  suddenly  curious  as  to  the  cause 
of  his  detention.  But  their  curiosity  was 
natural  enough  in  respect  of  the  three  who 
had  arrived  in  the  midst  of  that  formidable 
escort,  for  whose  reception  extensive  pre- 
parations had  been  made,  and  one  at  least 
of  whom  had  been  lodged  in  the  strongest 
part  of  the  prison. 

The  passage  from  Topin  which  follows 
seems  definitely  to  clinch  the  argument : — 

"  Pignerol  was  given  up  to  the  Duke  of 
Savoy  shortly  after  the  arrival  of  the  new 
prisoners  at  the  Isles.  I  have  searched 
during  the  ten  years  (1698- 1708)  which  fol- 
lowed the  departure  of  Saint-Mars  for  the 
Bastille,  all  the  despatches  exchanged  be- 
tween Lamothe-Guerin,  his  successor  at  the 
Isles,     and    the    Court     of    Versailles.       The 


PRISONER    OF  CONSEQUENCE.  311 

name  of  Mattioli  is  nowhere  to  be  found  in 
them,  nor  is  there  mention  of  any  prisoner 
of  importance  left  behind  by  Saint- Mars." 

We  know  that  Mattioli  was  at  Pignerol  at 
the  end  of  1693  (only  a  few  months  before 
the  removal  of  the  three  prisoners),  for  it 
was  in  December  of  that  year — the  27th — 
that  the  minister  was  in  communication  with 
Laprade  about  the  prisoner's  attempt  to  write 
something  on  the  lining  of  his  clothes.  The 
three  who  were  transferred  in  1694  were  all 
old  prisoners  of  Saint- Mars,  and  Mattioli 
alone  among  them  possessed  any  considera- 
tion. When,  therefore,  Saint-Mars  is  strictly 
bidden  to  keep  from  everyone  the  know- 
ledge of  "  what  your  ancient  prisoner  has 
done,"  there  is  but  one  conclusion  to  draw 
— that  the  reference  is  to  the  affair  which 
Versailles  continued  to  call  "  the  treason  of 
Count  Mattioli." 


312 


CHAPTER    IX. 

Both     at     the     Isles     and     in     the 

The 

SiIver  Bastille,  the  life  of  Mattioli — if 
Dish•  life  it  may  be  called — seems  to 
have  been  as  wretched,  as  inexpressibly 
blank,  as  in  the  dungeon  of  Pignerol. 
The  despatches  say  nothing  more  of  mad- 
ness ;  but,  by  the  time  he  came  to  the 
Isles,  Mattioli  had  suffered  during  fifteen 
years  a  form  of  captivity  which  might  have 
shattered,  and  which  must  certainly  have 
enfeebled,  the  very  strongest  intellect.  One 
of  the  most  grievous  pains  of  imprisonment 
under  the  old  regime  must  have  been  the 
total  lack  of  profitable  or  engaging  employ- 
ment.      The    tasks    of   prison,    during   a  long 


THE   SILVER   DISH.  313 

sentence  of  penal  servitude,  are  seldom 
cheerful,  and  cannot  but  be  monotonous  ;  but 
they  do  at  least  fill  the  greater  portion  of 
the  convict's  life,  they  stay  his  mind  from 
too  much  brooding,  and  they  offer  to  in- 
dustry a  means  of  climbing  from  an  inferior 
to  a  higher  class.  But  the  prisoners  of  State 
under  the  French  monarchy  had  no  tasks, 
and  could  only  with  difficulty  create  their 
occupations  or  their  recreations.  And  the 
history  of  Mattioli  is  desolate  above  the 
average.  If  his  mind  were  not  dead  within 
him,  his  existence  during  all  those  years  is 
terrible  to  contemplate.  Guiding  ourselves 
solely  by  the  light  of  proved  despatches,  re- 
jecting absolutely  all  such  evidence  as  will 
not  stand  that  test,  we  find  scarcely  a  trace 
of  solace  or  relief  in  that  protracted  martyr- 
dom. A  few  "  books  of  devotion,"  grudg- 
ingly doled  out  ;  the  yearly  visit  of  a  priest : 
that    is    all.       In    this    respect,    as   in    others, 


314         THE  MAN  IN  THE  IRON  MASK. 

the  history  of  Mattioli  is  nearly  without  a 
parallel.  Of  how  many  prisoners  of  State 
is  it  recorded  that,  during  a  captivity  of 
years,  they  neither  found  nor  were  granted 
any  means  of  softening  the  unutterable  soli- 
tude of  prison  ?  Fouquet  read  and  wrote  ; 
procured  herbs  and  plants  from  the  hills,  and 
dabbled  in  pharmacy ;  and  was  at  last  united 
to  his  family.  Mirabeau  in  Vincennes  com- 
posed that  devastating  essay  on  Lettres  de 
Cachet  which  foreshadowed  the  Revolution. 
Conde  cultivated  pinks.  Cardinal  de  Retz 
played  chess,  and  received  his  friends. 
Trenck  carved  scrolls  and  mottoes  on  his  cups. 
Voltaire  polished  verses.  Pellisson's  spider 
is  famed.  Latude  and  others  tamed  pigeons, 
rats,  and  mice.  Bunyan  and  Cervantes  found 
an  immortality  in  the  dungeon.  The  annals 
of  the  Bastille  embrace  one  dainty  love  affair, 
that  of  Mdlle.  de  Launay  (the  Madame  de 
Staal  that  should  be)  and  the  young  Chevalier 


THE  SILVER   DISH.  315 

de  Menil.  Diderot  in  Vincennes  received 
the  visits  of  Rousseau  and  D'Alembert,  and 
talked  Plato  and  Socrates  with  them  in  the 
garden.  In  days  near  our  own,  Louis 
Napoleon  called  the  fortress  of  Ham  his 
University.  Even  in  the  prisons  of  Russia, 
within  the  stretch  of  recent  memory,  prisoners 
of  both  sexes  have  contrived  to  communicate 
freely  by  means  of  a  pre-arranged  code  of 
raps. 

But  between  Mattioli  and  all  the  living, 
the  gulf  is  absolute.  Four-and-twenty  years 
revolve  for  him  in  a  silence  almost  un- 
broken. Intellect  and  the  "  life  of  life  in 
the  heart "  must  staunch  and  be  swallowed 
up  in  that  appalling  and  incredible  sterility 
of  existence.  Time  scarcely  modifies  in  any 
degree  the  pitiless  character  of  his  captivity. 
During  four-and-twenty  years  he  seems  not 
to  have  seen  one  friendly  face  ;  and  it  is 
almost    certain     that     not     a    message     ever 


316         THE  MAN  IN  THE  IRON  MASK. 

reached  him  from  the  world  which  he  had 
lost. 

One  day  in  those  loathed  seats  was  the 
pattern  of  all.  Saint-Mars  has  left  us  in  a 
letter  to  Barbezieux  a  precise  account  of  the 
manner  in  which,  when  he  was  ill  or  other- 
wise engaged,  his  lieutenants  waited  on  the 
prisoners  : — 

" The  first  of  my  lieutenants, 

who  takes  the  keys  of  the  prison  ot  my 
ancient  prisoner,  with  whom  we  commence, 
opens  the  three  doors  and  goes  in.  The 
prisoner  politely  hands  him  the  plates  and 
dishes,  laid  one  on  another,  and  the  lieutenant 
has  only  to  pass  through  two  doors  to  give 
them  to  one  of  my  sergeants,  who  places  them 
on  a  table  two  steps  away,  where  is  the  second 
lieutenant,  who  examines  everything  that 
comes  into  and  goes  out  of  the  prison,  and 
sees  that  nothing  has  been  written  on  any 
of  the    vessels.     After    they    have   given    him 


THE  SILVER   DISH.  317 

the  utensil,  they  make  a  thorough  examina- 
tion of  the  bed,  then  of  the  gratings  and 
windows  of  the  room  ;  and  very  often  the 
prisoner  himself  is  searched.  After  enquiring 
civilly  whether  he  wants  anything,  they  lock 
the  doors,  and  visit  the  other  prisoners  in 
like  manner." 

The  "  ancient  prisoner,"  Mattioli,  is  here 
in  the  strictest  solitary  confinement,  and  it 
is  evident  that  these  perfunctory  visits  of 
Saint-Mars  or  his  lieutenant — with  the 
humiliating  accompaniment  of  the  daily  search 
— represent  his  sole  intercourse  with  his 
fellow-men.  An  existence  so  barren,  so 
deadly  drear,  as  that  of  a  Mattioli  or  a 
Prisoner  of  Chillon,  may  be  a  fit  theme  for 
tragic  poetry,  but  is  of  little  service  to  the 
makers  of  romance.  Fable  accordingly  has 
always  been  extremely  busy  with  this  prisoner 
of  Saint-Mars,  who  was  for  generations  the 
most   mysterious  creature  in  history.     Things 


3i8         THE  MAN  IN  THE  IRON  MASK. 

true  or  partly  true  of  other  prisoners  have 
grouped  themselves  around  his  memory  ; 
other  things  speak  only  for  the  imagination 
of  their  inventors.  The  legend  of  the  silver 
dish  (which  includes  Papon's  variation)  be- 
longs to  the  period  of  Sainte-Marguerite. 
Already  referred  to,  it  has  a  foundation  in 
fact,  but  does  not  touch  the  history  of  the 
Mask.  The  revocation  of  the  Edict  of 
Nantes,  in  1685,  had  filled  the  prisons  of 
Louis  XIV.  with  those  French  Protestants 
and  their  clergy  who  had  not  fled  the 
country;  and  many  ministers  of  the  proscribed 
faith  were  sent  from  time  to  time  to  Sainte- 
Marguerite.  It  was  through  one  of  these 
prisoners  for  his  faith  that  the  tale  of  the 
"  silver  dish "  arose.  A  certain  Salves,  un- 
known to  history  in  any  other  relation,  is  the 
source  it  traces  from.  Along  with  a  com- 
panion unnamed,  Salves  fell  in  trouble  with 
Saint-Mars,     who,     in     accordance    with     his 


THE  SILVER   DISH.  3 '9 

invariable  rule,  posted  the  matter  to  Ver- 
sailles. Nothing  escaped  Saint-Mars ;  for 
what  he  did  not  see  his  lieutenants  did  not 
dare  to  withhold  from  him  ;  and  all  went  in 
detail  to  the  King. 

"  The  first  of  the  Protestant  ministers  who 
have  been  sent  here,"  he  wrote  (June  4th, 
1692),  "  sings  psalms  night  and  day  at  the 
top  of  his  voice,  to  let  it  be  known  who  and 
what  he  is.  I  forbade  him  several  times,  on 
pain  of  punishment  ;  and  I  have  had  to 
punish  him  at  last.  I  have  taken  a  similar 
course  with  his  comrade  Salves,  who  has  a 
mania  for  scribbling,  and  who  has  written 
things  on  his  pewter  vessels  and  on  his  linen, 
to  publish  it  that  he  is  imprisoned  unjustly 
for  his  religion." 

Out  of  this  petty  memorandum  from  the 
gaoler  to  the  minister  two  writers  have 
furnished  the  most  sensational  incident  in 
the    legend    of    the    Iron    Mask.       Voltaire's 


32o         THE  MAN  IN  THE  IRON  MASK. 

fisherman  came  off  with  his  life,  it  is  true  : 
Pere  Papon's  monk  did  not ;  and  there  are 
so  few  points  at  which  the  memory  of 
Saint-Mars  makes  appeal  to  us  that  it  is 
grateful  to  spare  him  the  charge  of  that 
imaginary   murder. 

With  the  story  of  the  silver  dish  is  linked, 
in  the  popular  fancy,  the  story  of  the  laces 
and  fine  linen.  There  is  not  a  hint  of 
this  in  the  despatches,  and  nothing  that 
Saint-Mars  omits  to  mention  is  to  be 
received  ;  for  he  is  little  less  than  childish 
in  his  incessant  appeals  to  Versailles  on 
every  point  that  concerns  even  the  obscurest 
of  his  prisoners.  It  is  a  corollary  of  Voltaire's 
libel  on  Anne  of  Austria,  but  it  has  not  the 
basis  even  of  that  remote  history  of  the  silver 
dish.  A  solitary  figment  of  Voltaire,  it  goes 
with  the  rest  of  his  invention.  The  first 
order  of  Louis  XIV.  will  be  remembered,  that 
Mattioli    should    have    nothing     "  except    the 


THE  SILVER   DISH.  321 

absolute  necessaries  of  life " — among  which 
it  is  improbable  that  either  Louis  or  Louvois 
would  include   the  frills  and  laces  of  the  age. 

Point  by  point,  what  is  legendary  in  the 
record  of  the  Mask  gives  place  to  history. 
Tradition  has  found  him  with  a  guitar,  and 
old  prints  depict  it  ;  but  every  picture  of 
the  Man  in  the  Mask  is  a  fantasy,  and 
no  guitar  passed  unsanctioned  into  any 
prison  of  Saint- Mars. 

To  the  fifteen  disintegrating  years  in 
Pignerol  were  joined  four  at  the  Isles  of 
Sainte-Marguerite  ;  day  yielding  ever  to 
night  in  the  prisoner's  life  through  all  that 
tragic  cycle.  And  fate  had  not  yet  done 
with  him. 


2  1 


322 


CHAPTER    X. 

On      the      first      of      March,      1698, 
Saint-Mars  received    from    Versailles 

comes 

to  the  the  offer  of  the  government  of 
the  Bastille.  The  salary  was  rich, 
the  office  one  of  trust  and  dignity,  and 
Paris  was  Paris  :  Saint-Mars  accepted  the 
offer  at  once.  Nothing  further  passed  until 
the  17th  of  June,  when  Barbezieux  wrote 
again  from   Versailles  : — 

"  I  have  been  long  in  answering  your 
letter  of  the  8th  of  last  month,  as  the  King 
had  not  explained  his  intentions  to  me.  I 
am  now  to  inform  you  that  his  Majesty 
is  pleased  at  your  acceptance  of  the  govern- 
ment of  the  Bastille.  You  can  have 
everything    in    train     to    be    ready    to    start 


THE  MASK  COMES  TO  THE  BASTILLE.     323 

when  you  receive  the  final  word  ;  and 
bring  with  you  in  all  security  your  ancient 
prisoner. 

"  I  have  arranged  with  Mons.  Saumery 
to  give  you  two  thousand  crowns  for  the 
transport  of  your  effects. " 

On  the  19th  of  July  there  came  a  third 
despatch  from  Barbezieux,  confirming  what 
had  gone  before,  and  emphasising  the 
importance  of  guarding  the  prisoner  on  the 
journey  "  in  such  a  manner  that  he  shall 
be  seen  by  no  one."  Two  months  later, 
in  the  middle  of  September,  when  the  days 
were  shortening,  Saint-Mars  set  out  with 
him  to  traverse  the  whole  of  France.  At 
this  point  the  reflection  arises  that  had  the 
affair  of  the  Mask  been  a  scandal  of  the 
Court,  and  the  prisoner  a  person  whose 
features  revealed  a  royal  origin,  it  would 
have  been  strangely  and  curiously  impru- 
dent   to    bring    him    to    a    dungeon    in    the 


21* 


324         THE  MAN  IN  THE  IRON  MASK. 

heart  of  Paris — where  chance  might  so  much 
more  easily  discover  him  than  in  that  dis- 
tant fastness  lapped  by  the  Sea  of  Provence- 
There  could  be  no  grave  reason  why  the 
Italian  Mattioli  should  not  be  carried  to 
the  Bastille  ;  there  was  every  prudent  reason 
of  State  why  a  brother  of  the  King  should 
not  be  carried  there.  But,  as  we  shall 
see,  it  was  unquestionably  the  Man  in 
the  Mask  who  made  the  journey  with  Saint- 
Mars. 

A  glance  at  the  map  of  France  will  show 
what  a  journey  this  was  at  the  jog-trot 
pace  of  the  litter.  No  detailed  itinerary 
exists,  but  we  know  where  the  principal  halt 
was  made.  In  the  central  department  of 
Yonne  is  the  town  of  Villeneuve-le-Roi,  once 
called  the  Ante-room  of  the  Popes,  now 
desolate  and  lifeless.  Near  Villeneuve  is  the 
chateau  of  Palteau,  a  property  belonging  to 
Saint-Mars,    and    here    he    halted     with    his 


THE  MASK  COMES  TO  THE  BASTILLE.     327 

prisoner.  *  Reference  has  been  made  in  the 
Introduction  to  the  letter  of  M.  de  For- 
manoir  de  Palteau,  grand-nephew  of  Saint- 
Mars,  in  which  this  episode  is  described. 
The  letter,    bearing  date  June   19,    1768,   was 

*  Saint-Mars  was  not  the  man  to  loiter  on  the  road,  with  a  prisoner 
of  State  in  his  keeping,  and  it  is  unlikely  that  the  stay  at  Palteau  ex- 
ceeded a  night  or  two.  But  wherever  the  Masked  Man  came  legend 
laid  hold  upon  his  memory,  and  Villeneuve-le-Roi  has  appropriated 
him.  There  is  in  Villeneuve  a  vast  old  ruined  fort,  with  castellated 
drum-towers,  and  cells  and  chambers  in  abundance.  Now  Saint-Mars 
and  the  Mask  would  probably  take  Villeneuve  on  their  way  to  Palteau  ; 
at  all  events,  that  close-guarded  litter,  watched  with  an  awful  wonder 
from  Provence  to  Paris,  must  have  passed  very  near.  What  more  apt 
than  to  imagine  for  the  Mask  a  period  of  captivity  in  the  fort  of  Vil- 
leneuve-le-Roi !  It  has  been  done.  In  a  pleasant  volume  of  wander- 
ings, "  In  the  Rhone  Valley , "  Mr.  Charles  W.  Wood  tells  how  he  was 
shown  the  cell  by  a  nun,  as  her  piece  de  resistance.  "  Most  interesting 
of  all  was  a  small  remote  doorway,  and  the  nun  looked  wonderfully 
picturesque  as  she  bent  down  and  applied  the  key  to  the  lock,  her  black 
graceful  dress  standing  out  in  strange  contrast  with  the  ancient  and 
splendid  masonry.  Then  she  threw  open  the  door  and  we  entered  a 
dark  circular  chamber  that  was  half  cell.  In  tones  that  thrilled  her 
hearers  and  echoed  in  the  roof,  she  said  :  '  This  is  the  room  in 
which  the  Man  with  the  Iron  Mask  was  confined,  before  he  was 
taken  to  another  and  more  open  part  of  the  fort.'"  Mr.  Wood, 
accepting  the  statement  in  good  faith,  adds:  "We  almost  felt  on 
sacred  ground." 


328         THE  MAN  IN  THE  IRON  MASK. 

addressed  to   Freron,  of  the  Annee  Litt'eraire, 
and   published  in   the   issue    of  June   30. 

"  In  1698,  "  writes  M.  de  Palteau,  "  M.  de 
Saint-Mars  passed  from  the  charge  of  the 
Isles  of  Sainte-Marguerite  to  that  of  the 
Bastille.  On  his  way,  he  stayed  with  his 
prisoner  on  his  estate  at  Palteau.  The  Man 
in  the  Mask  came  in  a  litter  which  preceded 
that  of  M.  de  Saint-Mars  ;  they  were 
accompanied  by  several  men  on  horseback. 
The  peasants  went  to  greet  their  lord  ; 
M.  de  Saint-Mars  took  his  meals  with  his 
prisoner,  who  was  placed  with  his  back  to 
the  windows  of  the  dining-room  which  over- 
looked the  courtyard.  The  peasants  whom 
I  questioned  could  not  see  whether  he  wore 
his  mask  while  eating,  but  they  took  note  of 
the  fact  that  M.  de  Saint-Mars,  who  sat 
opposite  to  him,  kept  a  pair  of  pistols  beside 
his  plate.  They  were  waited  on  by  one 
man-servant,    who    fetched    the     dishes    from 


THE    MASK  COMES  TO  THE  BASTILLE.     329 

the  ante-room  where  they  were  brought  to 
him,  taking  care  to  close  behind  him  the 
door  of  the  dining-room.  When  the  prisoner 
crossed  the  courtyard,  he  aways  wore  the 
black  mask  ;  the  peasants  noticed  that  his 
teeth  and  lips  showed  through  it  ;  *  also 
that  he  was  tall  and  had  white  hair.  M.  de 
Saint-Mars  slept  in  a  bed  close  to  that  of  the 
masked   man." 

There  could  be  nothing  simpler  than  this 
statement.  The  writer  has  no  hypothesis  of 
his  own,  and  no  leaning  towards  any  other 
hypothesis.  He  is  content  to  report  what  he 
had  learned  by  word  of  mouth  from  the  old 
people  on  the  estate  who  had  actually  seen  the 
prisoner  in  the  mask  at  Palteau.f  The  detail 
of  chief  importance  in  the  account  is  the  mask  ; 

*  Clearly,  the  little  velvet  half-mask  which  may  be  seen  to-day  at 
any  bal  masque  in  Carnival. 

t  The  chateau  of  Palteau  still  stands  where  it  did.  The  dining-hall 
in  which  Saint-Mars  faced  his  prisoner,  with  pistols  by  his  side,  is 
now,  says  M.  Funck-Brentano,  a  kitchen. 


33o         THE  MAN  IN  THE  IRON  MASK. 

and  this  is  verified  by  the  entry  in  Du  Junca's 
journal,  when  the  veiled  prisoner  arrives  at  the 
Bastille.  We  have  kept  touch  of  this  prisoner 
so  far,  and  have  found  under  his  velvet  mask 
no  features  but  those  of  Mattioli.  A  prisoner 
of  particular  consequence  is  transferred  from 
Pignerolto  the  Isles,  and  at  the  date  of  his 
removal  there  is  only  Mattioli  of  consequence 
in  that  prison.  His  name  ceases,  but  he  is 
identified  with  the  "ancient  prisoner"  of  sub- 
sequent despatches.  This  "  ancient  prisoner  " 
is  the  one  whom  Saint-Mars  is  instructed  to 
carry  from  the  Isles  to  the  Bastille.  The 
prisoner  alights  at  Palteau,  and  it  is  observed 
by  the  peasants  on  the  estate  that  he  wears  a 
mask.  The  journey  ends  at  the  Bastille ;  and 
Du  Junca,  the  King's  Lieutenant  of  the  prison, 
notes  in  his  journal  that  the  prisoner  whom 
Saint-Mars  brings  from  the  Isles  is  an  ancient 
prisoner  whom  he  had  at  Pignerol,  and  that 
he  is  masked.     Even  in  the  Paris  of  that  day 


THE  MASK  COMES  TO  THE  BASTILLE.     331 

the  use  of  the  mask  was  not  unknown  ;  but 
there  is  absolutely  no  other  instance  in  French 
history  of  its  employment  to  conceal  the 
identity  of  a  prisoner  :  hence  the  naive  wonder 
which  may  be  read  between  the  lines  of 
Du  Junca's  entry. 

This  note  in  the  register  or  journal  kept  by 
the  King's  Lieutenant  of  the  Bastille  is,  as 
M.  Funck-Brentano  observes,  "  the  origin  and 
foundation  of  all  that  has  been  printed  on  the 
question  of  the  Iron  Mask."  The  journal  itself 
(the  original  is  in  the  Arsenal  Library)  is  the 
work  of  an  unlettered  official  who  spells 
atrociously,  and  knows  nothing  of  punctua- 
tion. When  a  new  prisoner  was  received 
Du  Junca  wrote  down  the  particulars  of  his 
coming,  and  the  first  of  the  entries  with  which 
this  history  is  concerned  is  as  follows,  in  a 
translation  as  literal  as  possible. 

"  On  Thursday,  18th  September  (1698),  at 
three  in  the  afternoon,   M.  de  Saint-Mars,  go- 


LP 


332         THE  MAN  IN  THE  IRON  MASK. 

vernor  of  the  chateau  of  the  Bastille,  presented 
himself  for  the  first  time,  coming  from  his 
government  of  the  Isles  of  Sainte-Marguerite- 
Honorat,  having  with  him  in  his  litter  a  pri- 
soner who  was  formerly  in  his  keeping  at  Pig- 
nerol,  whom  he  caused  to  be  always  masked, 
whose  name  is  not  mentioned  :  on  descending 
from  the  litter,  he  had  him  placed  in  the  first 
chamber  of  the  Baziniere  tower,  waiting  until 
night  for  me  to  take  him,  at  nine  o'clock,  and 
put  him  with  M.  de  Rosarges,  one  of  the  ser- 
geants brought  by  the  governor,  alone  in  the 
third  chamber  of  the  Bertaudiere  tower,  which 
I  had  had  duly  furnished  some  days  before  his 
arrival,  by  order  of  M.  de  Saint-Mars  :  the 
aforesaid  prisoner  will  be  served  and  seen  to 
by  M.  de  Rosarges,  and  maintained  by  the 
overnor." 

Such  is  the  famous  entry  which  records  the 
coming  of  the  Mask  to  the  Bastille.  He 
passed    in    there   as    mysteriously   as    he    had 


r 


bjM* 


°XL- 


y?  Jaj<ms~ 


\ogt{v-~-  le?* 


Entry  in  the  Register  of  the  Bastille. 

By  the  courtesy  of  Messrs.  Downey  and  Co. 


THE  MASK  COMES  TO  THE  BASTILLE.     335 

entered  Pignerol  nineteen  years  earlier,  and 
the  Isles  in  1694.  That  the  staff  of  the  Bastille 
had  not  the  least  idea  who  he  was  is  rendered 
certain  by  the  names  he  received  from  them. 
He  was  "  the  Prisoner  from  Provence,"  most 
often  ;  sometimes  "  the  ancient  prisoner  " — 
the  term  so  closely  identified  with  Mattioli. 
It  is  clear  that  at  first  his  isolation  was 
as  rigorous  as  it  had  ever  been.  Rosarges 
alone  waited  on  him.  No  fellow-prisoner 
shared  his  captivity  in  the  third  chamber 
of  the  Bertaudiere  tower.  What  tales 
would  filter  through  the  Bastille,  what 
fables  would  begin  to  grow  around  him, 
even  while  he  sat  there — the  unknown  who 
wore  the  mask ! 

But  time  was  passing  even  for  the  Man 
in  the  Mask.  Casale  was  no  longer 
French  ;  the  negotiations  which  had  issued 
so  fatefully  for  Mattioli  were  old  history ; 
the     whole     affair     was     out     of     mind  :     its 


336         THE  MAN  IN  THE  IRON  MASK. 

importance  had  utterly  ceased.  Note  how 
this  affected  the  Mask  in  1701,  twenty-two 
years  after  he  had  been  thrown  into  Pignerol. 
No  pardon  came  for  him,  nor  was  he  granted 
the  ease  in  his  dungeon  which  was  allowed 
at  last  to  Fouquet.  His  fate  was  infinitely 
more  pitiful ;  he  fell  from  his  estate  in  the 
prison,  he  was  degraded  among  the  com- 
monest of  the  Bastille's  inmates. 

He  had  been  confined  in  the  third  chamber 
of  the  Bertaudiere  tower.  From  this  he  was 
removed,  the  6th  of  March,  1701,  to  make 
room  for  one  Anne  Randon,  "  devineresse 
et  diseuse  de  bonne  fortune,"  witch  and  for- 
tune-teller :  the  Man  in  the  Mask  displaced 
by  a  common  sorceress !  He  was  then  put 
by  Du  Junca,  whose  Journal  is  the  authority, 
into  "  the  second  Bertaudiere,"  which  he 
shared  with  a  certain  Thirmont  or  Tirmont. 
This  man,  embastilled  in  July,  1700,  had 
been  a  domestic   servant  ;  he   was   only   nine- 


THE  MASK  COMES  TO  THE  BASTILLE.     337 

teen  years  of  age,  and  had  been  accused  of 
atheism  and  black  magic,  and  of  corrupting 
young  girls  :  quite  an  ordinary  type  of  the 
rogue  and  charlatan  of  the  age.  Some  six 
weeks  later  these  two  were  joined  by  a 
third  prisoner.  The  entry  is  in  Du  Junca's 
Journal.  "  Saturday,  April  30,  at  about  nine 
in  the  evening,  M.  Aumont  the  younger 
came,  bringing  with  him  and  handing  over 
to  us  a  prisoner  named  M.  Maranville,  but 
calling  himself  Ricarville,  formerly  an  officer 
in  the  army,  a  malcontent,  a  tattler,  and  a 
rake  ;  whom  I  received  by  the  King's  orders, 
sent  through  the  Comte  de  Pontchartrain, 
and  placed  with  the  man  Tirmont,  in  the 
second  chamber  of  the  Bertaudiere  tower, 
along  with  the  ancient  prisoner,  both  being 
under  lock  and  key." 

The    Bastille    of   this    date    held    accommo- 
dation  for   no  more   than  forty-two    prisoners, 

separately  confined.      In    1701    it    was    exces- 

22 


338         THE  MAN  IN  THE  IRON  MASK. 

sively  full,  and  three  prisoners  were  locked 
into  one  chamber  :  the  servant  Tirmont ; 
Maranville  alias  Ricarville,  whom  the  police  re- 
port described  as  "  of  a  beggarly  appearance  "  ; 
and  the  Man  in  the  Mask.  In  October,  1708, 
Maranville  was  sent  from  the  Bastille  to 
Charenton  prison,  where  he  died.  Tirmont 
was  transferred  in  December,  1701,  to  the 
horrible  Bicetre,  half-prison,  half-madhouse. 
He  became  insane  two  years  later,  and  died 
in   1709. 

Now,  for  a  moment,  let  this  situation  of 
the  Mask,  cheek  by  jowl  with  this  sorry 
pair,  be  considered  in  the  light  of  the 
Legend.  It  is  an  awkward  situation  for  the 
Legend !  The  prisoner  has  been  immured 
twenty-two  years,  in  a  seclusion  the  strictest 
and  most  cruel,  his  name  and  his  identity 
withheld  from  everyone,  for  the  reason  that  he 
is  the  depository  of  some  tremendous  secret 
of  the  State.       He  has  been  hidden  under  a 


THE  MASK  COMES  TO  THE  BASTILLE.      339 

mask  all  this  time,  because,  forsooth,  if  he 
were  not  so  disguised,  he  would  be  recog- 
nised as  the  brother  of  Louis  XIV.  And  lo ! 
this  holder  of  the  dread  secret,  this  royal 
twin  or  bastard  who  so  fatally  resembles  the 
King,  is  suddenly  sent  to  keep  company  with 
two  gaol-birds  of  the  Bastille.  The  prison 
becomes  crowded,  a  lady  in  trouble  for 
telling  fortunes  is  among  the  new  arrivals  ; 
and  of  so  much  greater  consequence  is  she 
than  this  redoubtable  prisoner  who  has  been 
under  seal  for  two-and-twenty  years,  that  his 
room  in  the  Bertaudiere  is  immediately 
assigned  to  her.  The  fortune-teller  has  the 
dignity  of  a  separate  chamber ;  the  Mask  is 
thrust  in  with  the  lackey  Tirmont,  and 
Maranville  presently  makes  a  third.  The 
two  common  fellows  are  bye-and-bye  moved 
from  the  Bastille — having  had  the  fullest  op- 
portunity of  learning  and  disseminating  that 
stupendous  secret.     This  is  not  a  little  curious 


34o         THE  MAN  IN  THE  IRON  MASK. 

— considered    in     the    light    of    the     Legend. 
What,  indeed,  becomes  of  the  Legend  ? 

But  if  the  reader  is  with  us  in  this  inquiry, 
with  Delort  and  Topin  and  M.  Funck- 
Brentano,  this  decline  in  importance  of  the 
prisoner  who  had  hitherto  been  all-important 
has  already  received  its  explanation.  With 
the  lapse  of  time,  the  man  and  the  political 
intrigue  he  had  been  concerned  in  had  quite 
ceased  to  be  of  consequence  to  anybody. 
Mattioli  had  no  secret  to  reveal.  Should 
he  divulge  the  affair  of  Casale  ?  No  one  at 
that  date  would  have  been  a  penny  the 
worse.  Should  he  speak  of  his  long  and 
torturing  captivity  ?  Alas  !  captivities  as  harsh 
as  his  were  none  so  rare  at  that  era :  pity 
indeed  the  tale  might  excite  ;  it  could  excite 
no  extreme  degree  of  wonder.  In  fine,  at 
the  epoch  of  1701  the  prisoner  of  the  Mask 
had  nothing  to  communicate  which  could 
disturb    for     an    instant    the    repose    of    Ver- 


THE  MASK  COMES  TO  THE  BASTILLE.     341 

sailles  ; — and  they  suffered  him  to  sink  to  the 
level  of  those  vulgar  delinquents  who  passed 
in  and  out  of  the  Bastille. 

This  fact,  which  we  owe  to  M.  Funck- 
Brentano's  scrutiny  of  the  Journal  of  Du 
Junca,  disposes  of  the  interesting  tale  that, 
after  the  prisoner's  death,  everything  in  his 
room  was  burned,  "  linen,  clothes,  cushions  and 
counterpanes "  ;  the  flooring  taken  up  and 
the  walls  scraped  and  whitewashed  again. 
We  have  just  seen  his  room  in  the  occu- 
pation of  the  adventuress  Randon,  which 
would  be  upon  the  order  of  Saint-Mars  ; 
and  that  heedful  man  is  not  at  all  concerned 
to  know  whether  his  prisoner — who  may 
henceforth  be  shifted  anywhere — has  left 
behind  him  any  trace  of  his  identity.  Were 
this  anything  but  fiction,  it  would  be  found 
in  Du  Junca.  He  is  a  Pepys  in  minuteness 
whenever  he  finds  matter  for  his  pen  ;  his 
details    of    the   prisoner's    death    in    1703    are 


342         THE  MAN  IN  THE  IRON  MASK. 

precise,  but  he  has  nothing  else  to  tell. 
If,  after  the  prisoner's  death,  his  cell  had  been 
even  whitewashed,  we  should  have  learned 
it  from  Du  Junca,  who  wrote  everything  that 
came  to  his  knowledge,  but  with  no  more 
notion  than  Pepys  that  he  was  writing  for 
posterity.  The  story,  in  fact,  traces,  through 
Pere  Griffet,  to  a  Major  of  the  Bastille, 
Chevalier  by  name,  who  did  not  come  upon 
the  scene  until  1749.  For  many  years  it  was 
accepted,  but  it  vanishes  in  the  search-light 
of  M.  Funck-Brentano,  and  is  now  but  an 
item  of  the  Legend.  It  is  self-evident  that 
there  was  no  motive  for  destroying  the  traces 
of  a  prisoner  who,  two  years  before  his  death, 
had  been  given  ample  opportunity  to  reveal 
himself,  and  who  was  thenceforth  insignificant. 
This  tragedy  was  now  very  near  its  closing 
scene.  So  far  as  records  are  concerned,  the 
two  remaining  years  are  blank  ;  and  the 
imagination     does     not     willingly    attempt    to 


THE  MASK  COMES  TO  THE  BASTILLE.     343 

re-create  them.  For  the  spectacle  of  the 
Mask  degraded  from  his  eminence  of  mystery 
cast  unregarded  among  the  coarser  tenants 
of  his  dungeon,  affects  the  mind,  perhaps, 
even  more  painfully  than  the  vision  of  him, 
solitary  in  his  Alpine  cell,  or  vainly  inter- 
rogating the  waters  of  the  Isles  ;  narrowly 
surveyed,  the  veritable  prisoner  of  State. 
Hope  must  have  fled  him  for  years  ;  we  do 
not  find  him  petitioning  Louis,  or  appealing 
to  Charles  of  Mantua  :  he  sat  "  with  close- 
lipped  patience,"  or,  if  patience  had  not  found 
him,  it  were  better  to  know  nothing  of  what 
passed  within  that  lonely  brain. 

Under  date  of  the  19th  of  November, 
1703,  Du  Junca  wrote,  in  the  Register  which 
he  reserved  for  entries  of  the  death  or 
liberation  of  prisoners  of  the   Bastille  *  :  — 

"The  same  day,  November  19th,  1703,  the 
prisoner     unknown,     masked    always    with    a 

*  The  translation  is  as  literal  as  is  possible. 


344         THE  MAN  IN  THE  IRON  MASK. 

mask  of  black  velvet,  whom  M.  de  Saint- 
Mars,  the  governor,  brought  with  him  from 
the  Isles  of  Sainte-Marguerite,  and  whom  he 
had  had  for  a  long  time,  happening  to  be 
rather  unwell  yesterday  on  coming  from  mass, 
died  this  day  at  about  ten  o'clock  in  the 
evening,  without  having  had  any  serious 
illness  ;  indeed  it  could  not  have  been  slighter. 
M.  Giraut,  our  chaplain,  confessed  him  yes- 
terday, and  is  surprised  at  his  death.  He 
did  not  receive  the  sacrament,  and  our 
chaplain  exhorted  him  a  moment  before  he 
died.  And  this  unknown  prisoner,  confined 
so  long  a  time,  was  buried  on  Tuesday  at 
four  in  the  afternoon,  in  the  cemetery  of 
St.  Paul,  our  parish ;  on  the  register  of 
burial  he  was  given  a  name  also  unknown. 
M.  de  Rosarges,  major,  and  Arreil,  surgeon, 
signed  the  register." 

A    marginal  note    to  the  left    of  the    entry 
ran    as  follows  : — 


~jv.i>^w/  &&$  Hoc*  <fhuy 

if  7tef?wri4:  nwiu-pU.  &srf*c^ 
.  T7V0  7nm4r  a^u^vd  f/usfc.  ****** 


,$771. 


71*4. 


•<nvQ^$-7g»<QcnL>ru_  ,iptl  tz^ttl-  a*Ayfac67i*> 


Entry  in  the  Register  of  Saint  Paul's. 

By  the  courtesy  of  Messrs.  Downey  and  Co. 


THE  MASK  COMES  TO  THE  BASTILLE.     347 

"  I  have  since  learnt  that  he  was  named 
on  the  register  M.  de  Marchiel,  and  that  the 
burial  cost  40  livres." 

The  entry  in  the  register  of  Saint  Paul's, 
discovered    later,   reads  : — 

"On  the  19th  (1703)  Marchioly,  aged 
forty-five  or  thereabouts,  died  in  the  Bastille, 
whose  body  was  buried  in  the  churchyard 
of  St  Paul,  his  parish,  the  20th  of  this 
month,  in  the  presence  of  M.  Rosage  (sic), 
major  of  the  Bastille,  and  M.  Reglhe  (sic) 
surgeon  major  of  the  Bastille,  who  signed.— 
"  Signed :  Rosarges,   Reilhe." 

The  written  names  in  the  entry  are 
examples  of  the  slovenly,  inaccurate  spelling 
of  the  age.  The  person  who  sets  them 
down  is  ignorant  even  of  the  names  of  the 
two  officers  of  the  Bastille  by  whom  his 
register    is    signed :     Rosarges    is    "  Rosage," 


348         THE  MAN  IN  THE  IRON  MASK. 

Reilhe  is  "  Reglhe."  "  Marchioly "  is  re- 
markably close  to  Mattioli  when  it  is  re- 
membered that  Saint-Mars  would  probably 
have  given  the  name  by  word  of  mouth  ; 
it  is  still  closer  if  he  spoke  it,  as  he  often 
wrote  it  in  his  despatches — "  Martioly  "  in- 
stead of  Mattioli.  In  the  despatches  of 
Louvois  it  is  sometimes  "  Marthioly,"  which, 
with  the  difference  of  a  letter,  is  the  name 
on  the  register.  In  others,  it  is  "  Matioli," 
"  Matheoli,"  &c.  All  proper  names  were 
stumbling-blocks  to  the  writers  of  despatches 
in  that  era  ;  whether  educated  like  Louvois, 
half-educated  like  Saint-Mars,  or  as  totally 
unlettered   as   Du  Junca. 

The  age  assigned  to  the  prisoner,  "forty- 
five  or  thereabouts"  instances  again  the  utter 
indifference  and  lack  of  care  with  which 
these  entries  were  made.  Probably,  how- 
ever, no  one  in  the  Bastille,  not  even  Saint- 
Mars,    knew    Mattioli's    age.       Born    in    1640, 


THE  MASK  COMES  TO  THE  BASTILLE.     349 

he  was  sixty-three  at  the  date  of  his  death. 
According  to  Delort,  he  told  the  apothecary 
of  the  Bastille  that  he  was  sixty ;  a  close 
guess  for  one  who  had  lost  count  of  time  for 
near  a  quarter  of  a  century. 

So  fades  and  vanishes  that  tragic  figure. 


35° 


CHAPTER    XI. 

If  there  had  been  no  mask  in 
the  case  ?  The  fascination  of  the 
history  has  centred  there.  Had  Saint-Mars 
not  carried  his  prisoner  from  the  Isles  to  the 
Bastille  in  that  provoking  domino,  his  story, 
like  enough,  had  never  engaged  the  curiosity 
of  the  world.  Stories  as  sinister  and  sad 
have  oozed  from  the  shades  of  the  Bastille, 
of  the  Conciergerie,  of  Bicetre,  of  the 
Chatelet — stories  which  never  had  audience, 
or  which  have  lain  for  generations  among 
forgotten  things.  But  the  mask  has  per- 
petuated itself;  and,  so  simple  as  it  proves, 
it  has  kept  alive,  through  an  infinity  of 
changes,  the  memory  of  the  prisoner  whom 
it   hid. 


Q.   E.    D.  35 1 

And  the  mask  was  really  nothing. 

From  the  instrument  of  torture  invented 
by  Voltaire,  it  shrinks  to  the  little  fashion- 
able shield  of  black  velvet  which  every 
Italian  gentleman  had  in  his  wardrobe ; 
which  was  de  rigueur  in  Carnival  time ;  and 
which  both  Mattioli  and  the  Duke  of 
Mantua  used  as  a  matter  of  course  in  their 
private  interviews  with  d'Estrades.  In  the 
Legend,  the  mask  is  everything  :  in  the 
true,  documentary  history  of  the  Masked 
Man  it  figures  scarcely  at  all.  We  know 
from  Du  Junca's  Journal  that  the  prisoner 
was  masked  when  he  entered  the  Bastille  ; 
but  this  is  the  first  official  notice  on  the 
subject.  No  document  attests  that  he  wore 
the  mask  at  Pignerol  or  at  the  Isles. 
Saint-Mars  does  not  anywhere  allude  to  it ; 
nor  is  there  any  injunction  about  a  mask  in 
any  despatch  from  Versailles.  Louis  XIV. 
never   gave   the   order  which    has  been  attri- 


352         THE  MAN  IN  THE  IRON  MASK. 

buted  to  him  ;  Louvois  never  gave  it ;  Bar- 
bezieux  never  gave  it.  Up  to  the  date  of 
the  entry  into  the  Bastille,  the  mask  seems 
to  have  been  not  much  more  than  an  acci- 
dent of  the  history ;  there  is  only  the 
statement  in  the  Prudenza  trionfante  di 
Casale  that  the  prisoner  was  masked  by  the 
persons  who  arrested  him. 

We  have  it  from  Du  Junca  that  in  the 
Bastille  the  prisoner  was  "  masked  always." 
Without  the  least  straining  at  the  facts 
this  may  be  interpreted  to  mean  that  he 
wore  his  mask  whenever  there  was  occa- 
sion for  him  to  be  seen.  And  this  the 
prisoner  may  have  done  of  choice  ;  there 
are  times  and  seasons  in  prison  when  it 
would  be  a  convenience  and  a  relief  to 
possess  this  ready  means  of  disguising  one- 
self. 

Pere  Griffet,  chaplain  of  the  Bastille  in 
1745,   observes   in   his  Methode  de  Fhistoire: 


G.   &   D.  353 

V  There  is  nothing  to  show  that  he  was 
obliged  to  wear  his  mask  when  alone  in 
his  chamber,  or  in  the  presence  of  de 
Rosarges  or  the  governor,  by  whom  he 
was  perfectly  well  known."  If  compelled 
to  wear  it  at  all,  "  it  would  only  be  when 
he  crossed  the  courtyard  to  attend  mass, 
in  order  that  he  might  not  be  recognised 
by  the  sentinels,  or  when  some  person  on 
the  staff,  not  privy  to  the  secret,  was  sent 
into  his  chamber."  On  the  whole,  it  might 
be  conjectured  that  the  mask  was  an  in- 
spiration of  Saint-Mars  when  he  fetched 
his  prisoner  from  the  Isles  to  the  Bastille, 
and  that  it  was  afterwards  adopted  by  the 
prisoner  himself,  who  secured  thereby  the 
slight   liberty   or    relief  of  the    incognito. 

But,  let  the  origin  of  its  employment 
have  been  what  it  may,  this  velvet  vizor 
was  to  bear  a  part  not  less  than  astonish- 
ing    in     the     fable     of    the     Masked     Man. 

23 


354         THE  MAN  IN  THE  IRON  MASK. 

This  was  not  only  natural,  but,  in  a  sense, 
inevitable.  I  believe  that  the  Legend 
itself  had  no  other  genesis  than  the 
mystery  of  the  mask.  The  sense  of 
surprise  which  it  produced  in  Du  Junca 
was  immediately  communicated  to  the 
whole  staff  of  the  Bastille.  Time  flowed, 
but  the  mask  was  still  the  great  memory 
and  tradition  of  the  fortress.  The  prisoner 
himself—"  Marchiel,"  "  Marchioly,"  Mattioli 
— remained  unknown  :  Du  Junca's  Journal 
was  not  yet  laid  bare,  the  St.  Paul's 
register  was  a  sealed  book,  the  State 
documents  had  not  become  the  nation's 
property.  But  the  steady,  continuous,  and 
provocative  tradition  of  the  mask  lived  on 
within  the  walls  of  the  Bastille.  There 
it  was  found  by  the  many  students, 
philosophers,  and  men  of  letters  who  lay 
behind  those  bolts  for  longer  or  shorter 
terms    in    the    eighteenth     century.     Voltaire 


Q.  E-  £>.  355 

was  imprisoned  in  the  Bastille  in  17 17, 
and  again,  for  a  few  days  (most  unjustly), 
in  1726.  Here,  in  the  very  theatre  of 
the  mystery,  these  inquisitive  keen  minds 
got  the  earliest  inkling  of  it  ;  and  one 
poor  shred  of  fact  was  even  then  gather- 
ing to  itself  both  surmise  and  invention. 
It  is  an  officer  of  the  Bastille  who  sees 
in  imagination  the  stripping  and  rehabili- 
tating of  the  prisoner's  cell  :  where,  then, 
would  the  flight  of  a  Voltaire  end  ?  : — whose 
was  the  face  beneath  the  mask  ?  The  men 
of  letters,  released  from  the  Bastille,  fastened 
on  this  rare  enigma  ;  and  those  among 
them  who  saw  here  a  means  of  involving 
in  new  discredit  the  imperious  sovereignty 
of  Louis  XIV.,  rose  gladly  to  the  oppor- 
tunity. The  mask,  and  the  reason  of  the 
mask  :  these  were  the  things  to  account 
for.        So,    unquestionably,     did    the    Legend 

begin    to    be. 

23* 


356         THE  MAN  IN  THE  IRON  MASK. 

But  now,  at  last,  was  Mattioli  indeed 
the  man  ?  It  was  objected  to  Topin,  that 
the  complete  silence  on  this  subject  of  the 
copious  Saint-Simon  (who  has  peeped  into 
almost  every  cupboard  in  the  Court  of 
Louis  XIV.)  made  an  important  count 
against  him.  Topin  shrewdly  saw  that 
Saint-Simon's  silence  made,  not  against, 
but  for  him.  "  That  immortal  gossip  has 
in  truth  lighted  up  for  us  the  very  holes 
and  corners  of  Louis  XIV.'s  Court.  From 
its  pettiest  shifts  to  its  innermost  intrigues, 
nothing  has  escaped  him  ;  nothing  that  had 
to  do  with  inner  France.  But  of  foreign 
affairs  he  knew  only  those  that  concerned 
the  end  of  the  reign,  when  they  were  in 
the  hands  of  his  friend  the  Marquis  de 
Torcy.  Earlier  than  this,  he  was  as  igno- 
rant of  what  passed  beyond  the  borders  of 
France  as  he  was  intimate  with  everything 
that    passed    within    them.      His    silence,  then, 


Q.   E.   D.  357 

which  would  be  more  than  strange  if  it 
were  possible  to  trace  the  Mask  to  a 
family  of  France,  is  its  own  interpreta- 
tion if  the  prisoner  were  a  foreigner, 
arrested  beyond  the  French  frontier,  and 
as  early  as  1679."  * 

This  is  distinctly  suggestive  ;  though,  as 
testimony,  it  has  of  course,  only  a  negative 
value.  We  come  closer.  At  whatever  point 
in  the  enquiry  the  mysterious  prisoner  is 
named,  there  has  Mattioli  been  found  ;  and 
to  no  other  among  the  prisoners  of  Saint- 
Mars  has  the  term  proved  applicable.  The 
political  role  of  Mattioli  has  been  defined, 
the  circumstances  set  forth  in  which  he  fell 
under  the  vengeance  of  Louis  XIV.,  and 
incurred  that  terrible  punishment — inflicted, 
as  Maurice  Boutry  says,  "  dans  si  grand 
secret."  We  have  the  King's  order  for  his 
arrest    with    the    particular  injunction   that   no 

*  Topin. 


358         THE  MAN  IN  THE  IRON  MASK. 

one  is  ever  to  know  what  becomes  of  him  ; 
we  have  Catinat's  report  of  the  seizure  of 
Mattioli,  so  well  contrived  that  even  the 
officers  who  assisted  him  were  ignorant  of 
the  prisoner's  name  ;  we  have  the  witness 
of  the  Prudenza  trionfante  di  C as  ale,  in 
which  the  transaction  is  described  from 
the  beginning.  This  was  the  man  whom 
Louis  XIV.  destined  to  end  his  life  in 
prison,  and  from  the  hour  that  he  entered 
Pignerol  he  has  been  observed,  followed, 
step  by  step,  to  the  night  of  his  death  in  the 
Bastille. 

But  this  is  not  all.  The  proof  does  not 
end  here.  It  is  shown  in  the  Journal  of 
Du  Junca  that  the  prisoner  whom  Saint-Mars 
brought  masked  from  the  Isles  was  an  ancient 
prisoner  who  had  been  in  his  keeping  at 
Pignerol,  the  first  of  Mattioli's  three  dungeons, 
and  the  one  in  which  he  remained  when  other 
prisoners    were    transferred    with     Saint- Mars 


Q.    E.    D.  361 

to  Exiles.  Du  Junca  has  made  Pignerol 
essential  in  the  history  of  the  Mask.  We 
come  now  to  the  axiomatic  proof  of  M.  Funck- 
Brentano.  The  reader  was  asked  to  bear 
in  mind  the  despatch  of  Louvois  to  Saint- 
Mars  (June  9,  1 681)  enclosing  instructions 
for  the  journey  of  the  two  prisoners  who  were 
to  be  taken  from  Pignerol  to  Exiles.  The 
despatch  speaks  then  of  the  prisoners  who 
were  left,  and  their  number  is  precisely 
shown,  the  Sieur  du  Chamoy  having  orders  to 
pay  "  two  crowns  a  day  for  the  maintenance 
of  these  three  prisoners"  It  is  certain  then 
that  there  were  just  five  prisoners  in  Pignerol 
on  the  eve  of  Saint-Mars's  departure  for 
Exiles,  and  since  we  know  from  Du  Junca 
that  the  Mask  was  an  old  prisoner  of  Saint- 
Mars  at  Pignerol,  it  is  among  these  five  that 
we  must  inevitably  find  him.  All  the  five 
are  known  to  us  ;  their  names  have  happened 
in  these  pages  : — 


362         THE  MAN  IN  THE  IRON  MASK. 

THE    FIVE   PRISONERS.  THEIR    FATE. 

Eustache  Dauger.  A    prisoner   of   so   little    conse- 

quence that  he  was  assigned  as  a 
servant  to  Fouquet  in  Pignerol, 
while  Mattioli,  in  the  same  prison, 
was  still  in  the  strictest  seclusion. 

La  Riviere.  Died  in  December,  1686. 

The  Jacobin.  Died  at  the  close  of  1693. 

Dubreuil.  Died  at  the  Isles,  1697. 

Mattioli. 

A  Euclid  could  give  the  result  no  plainer. 
As  M.  Funck-Brentano  observes,  with  a  just 
complacency,  it  is  mathematical.  There  are 
five :  the  first  is  dismissed  on  his  merits  ; 
the  three  that  follow  are  dead  before  Saint- 
Mars  sets  out  for  the  Bastille — and  Mattioli 
alone  remains.  De  facto,  it  was  Mattioli 
whom  Saint-Mars  conveyed  in  the  mask  from 
the  Isles  of  Sainte-Marguerite  to  the  Bastille 
in  1698.  Mattioli  was  the  hidden  prisoner 
whom  we  have  kept  touch  of  throughout. 


Q.   E.   D.  363 

There  are  two  very  curious  corrobora- 
tions of  the  documentary  evidence,  deriving 
their  value  from  the  fact  that  they  antedate 
by  many  years  the  earliest  mention  of  the 
name  of  Mattioli.  The  last  King  of  France 
who  appears  to  have  known  the  history  was 
Louis  XV.  Importuned  by  the  Due  de 
Choiseul  to  reveal  the  prisoner's  name,  the 
King  would  only  say  that  ''all  the  con- 
jectures which  had  been  made  hitherto  upon 
this  subject  were  false."  Madame  de  Pom- 
padour was  then  engaged  to  press  for  a 
definite  reply ;  and  the  King  at  last  informed 
her  that  the  prisoner  of  the  mask  was  the 
"  Minister  of  an  Italian  Prince"  * 

Still  more  explicit  is  Madame  Campan,  in 
the  Memoirs  of  Marie  Antoinette.  During 
the  first  few  months  of  his  reign  Louis  XVI. 

*  Dutens  :  La  Correspondance  Intercepts.  On  the  other  hand,  in 
the  "Memoirs  "  of  Baron  de  Gleichen,  Louis  XV.  is  represented  as 
refusing  to  give  up  the  secret.  If  he  knew  it,  there  was  no  reason 
why,  at  this  date,  he  should  not  give  it  up. 


364         THE  MAN  IN  THE  IRON  MASK. 

was  much  occupied,  says  Madame  Campan, 
with  the  revision  of  his  grandfather's  papers. 
He  had  promised  to  share  with  the  Queen 
"  whatever  he  might  find  upon  the  history 
of  the  Man  with  the  Iron  Mask,  who,  he 
thought,  had  become  so  inexhaustible  a 
source  of  conjecture  merely  because  of  the 
interest  which  a  celebrated  writer  had 
excited  in  the  detention  of  a  prisoner  of 
State." 

"  I  was  with  the  Queen,"  continues  Madame 
Campan,  "  when  the  King,  having  finished 
his  researches,  told  her  that  he  had  found 
nothing  in  the  secret  papers  which  bore 
in  any  way  on  the  existence  of  this  prisoner ; 
that  he  had  referred  to  M.  de  Maurepas, 
whose  age  brought  him  nearer  the  time 
when  the  affair  must  have  been  known 
to  the  ministers,  and  that  M.  de  Maurepas 
had  assured  him  that  the  prisoner  was  merely 
a  person    of  a    very    dangerous   character  by 


Q.   E.   D.  365 

reason  of  his  intriguing  spirit,  and  a 
subject  of  the  Duke  of  Mantua.  He  was 
enticed  to  the  frontier,  arrested,  and  kept  a 
prisoner,  first  at  Pignerol,  and  then  in  the 
Bastille r  * 

There,  in  five  lines,  Madame  Campan  has 
given  us  the  entire  history,  and  in  terms 
literally  and  absolutely  correct.  She  does 
not  know  the  name  of  Mattioli,  she  is 
writing  at  a  time  when  no  one  in  France 
knows  it,  and  when  there  has  not  been  as  yet 

*  Madame  Campan  adds:  "  Such  was  in  fact  the  real  truth  about 
the  man  on  whom  people  have  been  pleased  to  fix  an  iron  mask.     And 

thus  was  it  related  in  writing,  and  published  by  M ,  twenty  years 

ago.  He  had  searched  the  depot  of  foreign  affairs,  and  there  he  had 
found  the  truth  :  he  had  laid  it  before  the  public ;  but  the  public 
prepossessed  in  favour  of  a  version  which  attracted  them  by  the  mar- 
vellous, would  not  acknowledge  the  authenticity  of  the  true  account. 
Everyone  relied  upon  the  authority  of  Voltaire  :  and  it  is  still  believed 
that  a  natural  or  a  twin  brother  of  Louis  XIV.  lived  a  number  of  years 
in  prison  with  a  mask  over  his  face.  The  whimsical  story  of  this  mask, 
perhaps,  had  its  origin  in  the  old  custom,  among  both  men  and  women 
in  Italy,  of  wearing  a  velvet  mask  when  they  exposed  themselves  to  the 
sun.  It  is  possible  the  Italian  captive  may  have  shown  himself  some- 
times upon  the  terrace  of  his  prison  with  his  face  thus  covered." 


366  THE  MAN  IN  THE  IRON  MASK. 

a  single  word  about  him  in  connection  with 
the  mystery  of  the  Mask  ;  yet  the  whole 
truth  is  there.  It  is  Duke  Charles's  envoy  : 
d'Estrades  lures  him  to  the  frontier  :  Catinat 
arrests  him  ;  Saint-Mars  has  him  at  Pignerol, 
at  the  Isles,  and  in  the  Bastille.  It  is 
Mattioli's  story  in  a  nutshell.  Madame 
Campan's  sympathy  with  her  subject  no- 
where betrays  her  into  loose  or  inaccurate 
statements  ;  and  had  she  been  inventing  in 
this  instance  it  would  have  been  the  most 
extraordinary  example  of  invention  in  all 
literature.  * 

With    the    official    documents    which    bear 


*  In  the  essay  in  the  Revue  des  Etudes  Historiques,  June-July, 
1899,  in  which  he  substantiates  the  proofs  of  M.  Funck-Brentano, 
Vicomte  Maurice  Boutry  has  produced  a  confirmatory  passage  from  the 
Souvenirs  of  the  Marquise  de  Crequy.  Summing  up  a  discussion  on 
the  Iron  Mask  between  Marshal  de  Noailles,  the  Duchess  de  Luynes, 
the  Due  de  Broncas  and  others,  the  Marquise  adds  :  "  The  leading  and 
best-informed  persons  of  my  time  always  considered  that  that  famous 
history  had  no  other  foundation  than  the  capture  and  imprisonment  of 
the  Piedmontese  Mattioli.  Voltaire's  details  are  the  most  ridiculous 
fable."  Interesting,  but  of  most  questionable  authenticity.  Was 
there  ever  a  Marquise  de  Crequy  ? 


Q.   E.    D.  367 

them  out,  these  pregnant  passages  make 
good  the  case. 

So  the  task  is  ended,  the  burden  of  the 
mystery  rolls  off :  Mattioli  the  Italian  takes 
the  place  of  that  impossible  romantic  creature 
who  has  so  long  usurped  it.  The  historic 
truth  of  the  affair  is  best,  though  we  lose  a 
Prince  who  never  lived.  For  a  tragi-coloured 
myth  we  exchange  a  living  tragedy  ;  a  tragedy 
prolonged  above  the  ordinary  miseries  of 
men.  The  punishment  of  Mattioli,  through 
four  -  and  -  twenty  years,  for  a  single  act 
of  treachery,  the  effect  of  which  was 
transient,  takes  something  from  the  splen- 
dours of  the  reign  in  which    it  was  inflicted. 

With  his  unfailing  sense  of  dramatic  con- 
trast, Topin  has  noted  that  at  the  very  hour 
of  Mattioli's  unheeded  death  on  a  pallet  in 
the  Bastille,  Charles  of  Mantua  arrived  on  a 
visit  to  Louis  XIV.  Did  Louis,  who  lavished 
on  his  guest  the  riches    of  the    Luxembourg, 


368         THE  MAN  IN  THE  IRON  MASK. 

tell  him  the  fate  of  his  ancient  favourite  ? 
It  would  have  been  heard  by  Charles  as 
carelessly  as  Louis  would  have  told  it. 
Scarce  a  bowshot  from  the  palace,  two  turn- 
keys of  the  Bastille  were  trailing  Mattioli 
in  the  dusk  to  a  grave  in  the  churchyard  of 
St.    Paul. 


CONCLUSION. 


By  Mr.  TIGHE  HOPKINS. 

In  One  vol.,  Crown  8vo.     Price  Six  Shillings. 

The  Silent  Gate: 

A  Voyage  into  Prison. 


PRESS    NOTICES. 

"  Mr.  Tighe  Hopkins  writes  so  feelingly  and  so  knowingly  of  prison 
life  that  we  might  fancy  he  had  served  a  term,  of  penal  servitude. 
Certainly  we  have  never  had  it  brought  home  to  us  so  forcibly  as  in 
some  of  these  stories  that  the  ways  of  transgressors  are  hard  when 
they  are  caught  and  sentenced.  .  .  .  Mr.  Hopkins  takes  a  variety 
of  types  for  the  subjects  that  illustrate  the  system,  and  his  stories 
alternate  between  tragedy  and  comedy.  .  .  .  The  general  effect 
is  to  give  an  excellent  idea  of  the  inner  working  of  prison  routine 
and   the  effects  of  punishment  on  different  temperaments." — Times. 

"  His  great  strength  lies  in  this — that,  though  he  has  taken  a 
subject  which  lends  itself  to  sensational,  and  even  to  melodramatic 
treatment,  he  knows  how  to  be  effective  without  being  melodramatic 
or  sensational.  His  book  is  a  set  of  eleven  short  stories,  all  dealing 
with  episodes  of  prison  life,  and  they  are  done  with  a  pathos  that 
is  never  mawkish  or  conventional,  and  a  humour  that  is  never,  or 
hardly  ever,  forced.  The  story  called  '  Turkey '  is  delightful  comedy. 
.  .  .  All  the  stories  are  written  with  admirable  restraint." — 
Literature. 

"It  is  to  Mr.  Hopkins's  credit  that  in  his  hands  prison  life  is 
interesting  in  its  strangeness  and  touching  in  its  humanities.  He 
knows  the'  routine,  the  slang,  the  habits,  the  tricks,  the  punish- 
ments, the  darker  shades,  and  brighter  gleams  of  life  in  Her  Majesty's 
prisons.  He  can  gratify  the  curiosity  of  the  man  who  rides  past 
Newgate  every  morning  on  his  'bus,  or  the  railway  passenger  who 
sees  the  turrets  and  low  walls  of  Wormwood  Scrubbs  turning  and 
fading  in  the  dusk.  And  he  can  do  this  without  hardness.  .  .  . 
It  is  unnecessary  to  say  that  this  book  is  well  written.  '  An  Idler 
in  Old  France '  and  '  Lady  Bonnie's  Experiment '  had  qualities  of 
style  which  Mr.  Hopkins  was  not  likely  to  lose  or  carelessly  abandon." 
— Academy. 


ii  PRESS   OPINIONS— continued* 

"A  series  of  sketches  of  prison  life  by  one  who  not  only  knows- 
his  subject,  but  can  put  his  knowledge  into  effective  literary  shape. 
Prison  life  is  of  necessity  a  gruesome  thing — but  the  gruesomenes* 
is  here  diversified  with  gleams  of  real  humour  and  pathos." — Saturday 
Review. 

"  Mr.  Tighe  Hopkins  has  seldom  done  anything  better  than  this 
volume  of  prison  stories,  '  The  Silent  Gate.'  It  abounds  in  curious 
detail,  it  is  neither  too  sentimental  nor  too  cynical,  is  redeemed 
by  many  flashes  of  humour  and  many  studies  of  queer  characters. 
.  .  .  If  'Benjamin  Oudd,'  and  'Miss  Pocket  in  B  Wing,'  and  'Miss 
Cullender's  Lamb '  are  inventions,  they  are,  at  all  events,  very  good 
inventions.  Miss  Pocket's  flirtation  with  an  invisible  male  prisoner, 
under  the  incredible  difficulties  which  the  rules  of  Her  Majesty's 
Prisons  place  in  the  way  of  such  proceedings,  is  a  delightful  idea. 
.  .  .  Mr.  Hopkins  does  not  ostensibly  write  with  a  purpose,  yet 
incidentally  he  brings  out  the  points  which  a  prison  reformer 
would  insist  upon." — Westminster  Gazette. 

'*  Mr.  Tighe  Hopkins  has  long  cultivated  an  elegant  taste  in  dungeons, 
ancient  and  modern.  His  tales  of  old  French  dungeons  are  piquant  to 
the  connoisseur  of  dark  walls  and  rusty  fetters.  In  '  The  Silent  Gate  r 
he  has  collected  stories  of  modern  English  prison-life,  and  they  repro- 
duce the  prison  atmosphere  with  such  extraordinary  fidelity  that 
if  we  did  not  know  Mr.  Hopkins's  career  very  well,  we  should  be 
inclined  to  ask :  '  What  was  he  in  for  ?  And  how  often  ? '  These 
stories  are  all  interesting,  and  some  of  them  are  well-nigh  perfect  both 
in   matter    and  treatment." — Illustrated  London  News- 

"  If  the  impression  left  upon  the  mind  by  these  stories  is  of  the 
sorrow  and  degradation  of  prison  life,  yet  they  show  that  through 
this  atmosphere  of  gloom  break  gleams  of  humour  and  of  sublime 
heroism.  It  would  be  difficult  to  go  beyond  the  pathos  of  '  The  Release 
of  Benjamin  Cudd.'  The  slowly  advancing  madness  of  this  poor  imbecile 
is  described  with  the  author's  accustomed  swiftness  and  pre- 
cision of  touch,  which  bring  out  the  pity  of  the  tragedy. 
The  suddenness  and  inevitableness  of  the  crisis  are  finely  rendered. 
The  humour  of  '  Miss  Pocket  in  B  Wing '  is  a  delightful  break  in  the 
pervading  sorrow.  ...  A  very  striking  tale,  'Miss  Cullender's 
Lamb,'  reveals  how  in  the  heart  of  a  hardened  woman  runs  a  redeem- 
ing streak  of  sublime  devotion.  This  collection  of  moving  and  graphic 
tales  brings  home  to  the  imagination  more  forcibly  than  any  treatise 
the  perplexities  that  attend  the  problem  of  the  treatment  of  criminals." 
— Daily  News. 

"In  the  present  volume  'The  Release  of  Benjamin  Cudd'  is  Mr. 
Hopkins's  best  study  of  criminal  character.     Benjamin,  is  a  real  prison 


PRESS   OPISlOTSS—contintted.  Tij 

type,  and  may  be  found  by  the  dozen  inside  the  walls  of  Her  Majesty's 
gaols.  .  .  .  Mr.  Hopkins  is  at  his  best  -when  describing  Benjamins 
feelings  in  expectation  of  being  called  before  the  visiting  justices  to  be 
sentenced  to  the  'cat.'  Nothing  could  be  better  than  the  account  of 
Benjamin's  breakdown  under  punishment,  his  hallucination,  his 
delirium,  his  final  intellectual  collapse.  Benjamin  is  a  fine  study  in 
criminal  psychology,  eminently  true  to  life.  We  should  like  Mr. 
Hopkins  to  give  us  more  work  of  this  kind,  and  leave  ingenious  escapes 
to  lesser   literary  lights."— Daily  Chronicle. 

"  Although  Mr.  Hopkins  writes  pleasantly  enough  to  keep  the  reek 
of  the  midnight  oil  from  his  readers'  nostrils,  his  knowledge  of  his 
subject  is  always  so  large  and  full  that  he  can  only  have  attained 
to  it  by  long  and  patient  study.  In  these  respects  his  last  volume 
is  like  those  which  preceded  it,  so  that  '  The  Silent  Gate '  may 
safely  be  commended  to  those  who  wish  to  get  not  only  some  general 
impression  of  prison  life,  but  also  to  become  acquainted  with  certain 
of  its  sordid  details.  .  .  .  Mr.  Hopkins  writes  with  such  con- 
vincing certainty  as  to  his  facts  that  the  reader  will  not  hesitate 
to  accept  him  as  an  authority." — Pall  Mall   Gazette. 

"  Of  prison  stories  there  is  one  all  too-familiar  type,  which  tells 
of  the  blameless  convict,  the  corruptible  warder,  and  the  heroic  escape. 
'  The  Silent  Gate'  is  a  refreshing  change;  a  collection  of  excellently 
readable  tales  of  the  world  inside  the  '  silent  gate',  some  racy,  some 
pathetic.  Mr.  Hopkins  introduces  us  to  types  that  are  new.  Some 
of  these  the  system  ruins;  others,  like  the  delightful  'Turkey,'  are 
simply  sunny,  innocent  souls,  whom  no  amount  of  house-breaking 
could  contaminate.  .  .  .  But  Bone  and  Miss  Pocket  are  the  gems 
of  the  book." — St.  James's  Gazette. 

"  No  writer  to-day  has  an  easier  narrative  style  than  Mr.  Tighe 
Hopkins,  or  a  more  agreeably  urbane  gift  of  humour.  In  a  book 
about  prison  life  and  prisoners  there  hardly  seems  to  be  much  scope 
for  these  accomplishments ;  yet  in  '  The  Silent  Gate '  Mr.  Hopkins 
uses  both  very  pleasantly.  The  story  'Turkey'  is  a  perfect  gem  of 
light  liandling  and  whimsical   observation." — Daily  Mail. 

"  In  eleven  brief  and  powerful  tales  in  his  best  style,  Mr.  Tighe 
Hopkins  takes  his  reader  on  'a  voyage  into  prison.'  The  book  will 
be  read  with  real,  if  melancholy,  interest.  Mr.  Hopkins  has  made 
a  careful  study  of  many  of  the  types  of  characters  to  be  found  within 
the  walls  of  the  convict  prisons  of  England,  and  his  darkest  pictures  in 
these  pages  are  at  once  vivid  and  impressive.  .  .  .  The  tales  are 
not  all  pathetic.  There  is  a  fine  thread  of  humour  running  through 
tbem  all,  imparting  to  their  touching  realism  a  strong  artistic  quality. 
The  book  will  interest  a  large  class  of  readers." — Scotsman. 


iv  PRESS   OPINIONS— continued. 

"  Unusual  interest  attaches  to  a  collection  of  stories  by  Mr.  Tighe 
Hopkins,  entitled  '  The  Silent  Gate :  A  Voyage  into  Prison.'  Quitting 
the  familiar  streets  and  dungeons  of  mediaeval  France,  Mr.  Hopkins 
takes  us  boldly  into  a  modern  gaol.  ...  A  series  of  brilliant 
sketches  of  the  strange  types  of  humanity  that  gather  within  "the  prison 
walls.  Only  an  expert  could  pronounce  upon  the  fidelity  of  such  por- 
traiture; all  that  the  reader  knows  is  that  a  vivid  picture  is  pre- 
sented to  his  imagination.  .  .  .  These  remarkable  stories  will 
certainly  startle   and  arrest." — Manchester  Guardian. 

"  Many  stories  of  prison  life  have  been  written,  but  few  that  show 
so  intimate  a  knowledge  as  the  eleven  which  together  make  up  '  The 
Silent  Gate.'  ...  In  each  story  the  crime  is  but  an  incident, 
a  nothing ;  the  individual  is  the  centre  of  interest — the  study  in 
psychology.  So  well  are  they  presented  that  we  have  a  difficulty 
in  not  believing  that  the  characters  are  true  to  life,  though  '  Miss 
Pocket  in  B  Wing  '  is  too  thorough  a  romance  not  to  have  been  helped 
by  fiction.  .  .  .  Mr.  Hopkins  writes  with  so  much  quiet  humour, 
has  so  delicate  a  touch  upon  the  sordid  side  of  life,  that  he  makes 
even  a  prison  amusing." — Literary   World. 

"  A  varied  assortment  of  prison  stories,  some  pathetic,  some 
humorous;  all  throbbing  with  a  deep  humanity." — Publishers' 
Circular. 

"  It  is  no  small  tribute  to  Mr.  Hopkins's  powers  of  vivid  delineation 
to  say  that  the  reading  of  '  The  Silent  Gate '  makes  one  feel  quite 
'bad.'  It  is  the  next  best  thing  to  being  'in'  in  person.  The  whole 
scene  comes  before  you.  .  .  .  The  strange  case  of  Dr.  Ashmole, 
the  'last  prisoner'  in  Newgate  before  its  disuse,  is  of  a  curiously  tragic 
character,  although  quite  within  the  bounds  of  possibility ;  while  the 
'  Singular  Conduct  of  C  53  '  owes  its  interest,  we  expect,  to  the  clever 
imagination  of  the  author.  ...  Its  humour  is  not  the  least  attrac- 
tive quality  of  '  The  Silent  Gate.'  " — Bookseller. 

" '  The  Release  of  Benjamin  Cudd,'  '  Turkey,'  and  '  Miss  Cullender's 
Lamb'  call  for  special  mention." — World- 

"  Mr.  Tighe  Hopkins  has  hit  upon  a  new  idea  in  his  '  Silent  Gate.' 
Nobody,  so  far  as  I  remember,  has  written  an  entire  book  of  prison 
stories.  Certainly  no  one  has  given  us  such  an  entirelv  fresh  incarna- 
tion of  criminal  life  as  has  Mr.  Hopkins  in  his  '  Turkey ' — the  boy  who 
will  make  the  fortune  of  'The  Silent  Gate.'  ...  Its  success  is  a 
foregone  conclusion." — New  York  Times. 


BY     THE     SAME     AUTHOR. 


AN    IDLER   IN    OLD    FRANCE 

In  i  vol.  Crown  Svo,  price  6s. 


PRESS    NOTICES. 

" '  An  Idler  in  Old  France '  is  not,  as  its  title  might  be  taken  to 
imply,  a  book  of  travel.  It  is  a  series  of  pleasant  literary  rambles 
among  the  social  annals  of  by-gone  France,  illustrating  such  subjects 
as  the  streets  of  old  Paris,  their  humours  and  their  abominations, 
the  toilets  and  meals  of  its  inhabitants,  French  mediaeval  inns,  sermons, 
apprentices,  doctors,  and  barber-surgeons,  the  old  fashions  of  la  chasse, 
and  so  forth.  Mr.  Hopkins  writes  from  the  fulness  of  knowledge  and 
draws  his  pictures  with  a  vivid  touch,  and  yet  not  without  the  dis- 
cretion which  his  subject  often  demands.  Readers  who  idle  with  him 
will  idle  well  and  find  plenty  of  entertainment." — Times- 

" '  There  are  many  curious  and  pleasant  paths,  not  over-trodden 
yet  in  this  romantic  tract,  which  might  be  for  another  day,'  says  Mr. 
Hopkins  in  his  preface.  The  phrase  seems  to  predict  a  second  volume 
— so  much  the  better :  to  idle  in  old  France  with  an  observer  so 
attentive  and  so  vivacious  is  not  to  lose  one's  time." — Saturday 
Review. 

"  We  have  seldom  read  a  more  charming  book  of  its  kind.  The 
author  has  rambled  in  the  by-ways  of  old  French  history,  and  in  a 
series  of  essays,  written  in  a  smooth  and  picturesque  style,  has  drawn  A 
series  of  graphic  pictures  of  old  French  life  which  will  be  equally 
interesting  to  the  ignorant  and  the  well-informed.  They  are  magazine 
articles  of  a  sort  that  gets  rarer  and  rarer  as  the  spread  of  education 
widens  the  circle  of  readers.  ...  No  contemporary  writer  does 
this  kind  of  work  better  than  Mr.  Tighe  Hopkins." — Literature. 

"  .  .  .  You  perceive  the  task  which  Mr.  Hopkins  sets  him- 
self. He  performs  it  as  thoroughly  as  he  dare,  and  as  delicately  as 
lie  may,  and  the  result  is  a  book  of  curious  interest.  .  .  .  Romance 
is  for  ever  there,  reality  here.  To  contrast  them  piquantly  has  always 
been  accounted  amusing,  and  it  is  often  instructive.  Here  it  is  both." 
— Academy. 

"  Everything  is  told  wittily  and  well,  and  Mr.  Hopkins  manages  to 
throw  a    graceful  veil   even  over  repulsive  topics." — Bookseller. 


vi  PRESS   OPINIONS—  continued. 

"  In  these  jottings  by  an  idler  in  old  France  you  have  uncovered  the 
hidden  darkness  of  a  superficially  brilliant  epoch.  The  book  is  full 
of  curious  documents  and  strange  records,  and  is  unquestionably  a 
valuable  addition  to  our  knowledge  of  times  and  peoples." — Bookman. 

"...  The  Middle  Ages  with  the  gilt  off,  the  romance  taken 
away.  .  .  .  Mr.  Tighe  Hopkins's  book  is  full  of  curious  and  in- 
teresting things." — Spectator. 

"If  Mr.  Tighe  Hopkins  robs  the  olden  time  of  much  of  its  halo, 
he  shows  that  the  new  is  steadily,  if  slowly,  making  for  righteousness. 
Mr.  Hopkins  does  not  do  this  purposely.  He  does  not  preach,  does 
not  draw  moral  lessons  of  any  kind.  From  his  accumulations  of  old 
French  lore  he  selects  the  significant  facts,  and  leaves  those  of  his 
readers  with  a  turn  for  reflection  to  draw  their  own  conclusions.  .  .  . 
The  book  abounds  in  well-selected  information,  and  is  a  valuable  help 
to  the  understanding  of  the  period  of  social  evolution  of  which  it  treats." 
— Daily  News. 

"  As  '  An  Idler  in  Old  France,'  Mr.  Tighe  Hopkins  elects  to  explore 
the  neglected  historical  by-ways.  He  '  idles  '  to  some  purpose  when  the 
result  is  these  entertaining  chapters  of  social  history." — Dundee 
Advertiser. 

"As  an  appropriate  corrective  or  supplement  to  the  romantic  view 
of  mediaeval  life  which  leaves  out  of  account  everything  that  is  not 
picturesque,  we  know  of  nothing  better  than  Mr.  Hopkins's  essays 
.  .  .  a  book  which  is  at  once  full  of  information  and  of  entertain- 
ment."— Daihf    Chronicle- 

"  Mr.  Tighe  Hopkins  has  no  rival  among  present-day  writers  in  his 
knowledge  of  the  characteristics  of  social  life  in  pre-revolutionary 
France." — Daily  Mail. 

"A  delightful  series  of  essays  illustrating  the  charms  and  the  draw- 
backs of  livinsr  in  a  by-gone  time." — Critic 

"  Most  of  us  would  be  well  content  to  turn  '  idlers  '  for  the  nonce, 
if  the  results  of  our  idleness  were  to  be  as  fruitful  in  interest  and 
entertainment  as  those  of  Mr.  Tighe  Hopkins.  .  .  .  We  are 
tempted  to  give  many  extracts  from  his  fascinating  volume,  but  space 
forbids,  and  we  must  conclude,  only  hoping  for  the  speedy  realisation 
of  the  half-promise  of  the  preface  to  be  guided  further  by  the  same 
author  in  these  pleasant  by-paths  of  history  'another  day.'" — St- 
James's   Budget- 

"It  is  rarely  that  a  volume  of  historical  studies  is  so  interesting." — . 
Globe. 


PEESS   OPINIONS— continued.  tii 

u  In  analysing  the  habits  and  customs,  and  extravagance  and  irre- 
sponsibility of  French  society  in  the  17th  and  18th  centuries,  Mr. 
Hopkins  contributes  a  real  chapter  to  a  very  grim  history.  .  .  . 
The  toilet,  the  table,  the  mediaeval  inn,  etc.,  all  provide  chapters  for 
this  excellent  volume.  Mr.  Austin  Dobson  has  in  many  a  charming 
essay  given  us  similar,  but  more  softened,  pictures  of  18th  century 
England.  In  either  case,  it  is  real  historical  work,  helping  to  that 
reconstruction  of  life  and  society  without  which  history  is  but  dry 
bones." — Westminster  Gazette. 

"  A  sheaf  of  picturesque  essays.  .  .  .  The  relations  of  mediaeval 
masters  to  their  apprentices  and  work-people  is  a  subject  that  Mr. 
Hopkins  discusses  with  scholarly  care  in  an  essay  which  is  packed  with 
quaint   information." — Standard. 

"  Replete  with  historical  and  antiquarian  interest.  A  very  acceptable 
companion  volume  to  his  work  on  the  old  prisons  of  Paris.  Though 
he  writes  in  a  style  that  avoids  the  remotest  suggestion  of  pedantry, 
Mr.    Hopkins   proves   himself  no  superficial    student." — World. 

"  The  author  of  '  The  Dungeons  of  Old  Paris '  gives  us  here  another 
collection  of  interesting  details  of  past  French  life  .  .  .  evidently 
a  labour  of  love,  and  we  gather  from  the  preface  that  if  it  finds  favour 
he  may  give  us  yet  more  results  of  his  researches  into  the  past.  We 
hope  it  may  be  so."— Sunday  Times- 

"  One  of  the  most  wholly  delightful  of  recent  books." — Sunday  Sun, 
"Our  Book   of  the  Week." 

"  A  very  interesting  and  brightly  written  book." — Literary   World. 

"  A  very    entertaining  volume." — St.   James's   Gazette. 

"  The  •  sheaf  of  papers '  gathered  and  bound  together  by  '  An  Idler 
in  Old  France '  was  worth  gleaning.  Mr.  Tighe  Hopkins,  however 
sombre  his  subject,  always  writes  with  fascinating  freshness  and  vivid- 
ness. There  is  not  a  dull  page  in  his  chronicle  of  old  French  ways,  and 
hardly  one  in  which  one  may  not  find  some  curious,  recondite,  and 
illuminative   piece   of  information." — Scotsman. 

"  Frank  and  vivid ;  careful,  curious,  and  amusing." — New  York 
Tribune. 

"A  unique  book.  .  .  .  We  have  given  an  idea  only  of  the  con- 
tents of  this  entertaining  volume,  which  has  assembled  an  immense 
mass  of  facts  from  a  wide  range  of  reading,  and  arranged  them  in  an 
order  that  affords  a  well-proportioned  picture  of  France  and  the 
French  two  or  three  hundred  years  ago.  The  like  of  it  we  should 
find  it  hard  to  name,  and  we  should  hardly  know  where  to  turn  for  an 
equal  amount  of  diverting  information." — Boston  Literary   World. 


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